Study Suggests Korea's Ancient Dogs Differed from Other East Asian Canines

Archaeology Magazine ^ | May 8, 2026 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

A genetic study of the remains of four 2,000-year-old dogs recovered from two archaeological sites on the Korean Peninsula suggests that the canines belonged to a lineage separate from other dog populations in East Asia, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. It had been previously thought that dog populations in East Asian shared a single lineage. Hyeongcheol Kim of the Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Suyeon Kim and A-reum Yu of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, and their colleagues determined that ancient Korean dogs resembled the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog. Korean dogs were also found to carry DNA from European dogs, indicating that Korean dogs had contact with Western dogs over a period of thousands of years. In addition, Korean dogs and wolves continued to interbreed after domestication. Most of this contact was with the now extinct Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax), but ancient Korean dogs also likely mixed with wolf populations from Korea and China. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS One. To read about another study of dogs in the Pacific Northwest, go to "Ancient DNA Revolution: Wild and Woolly Ancestors."

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: animalhusbandry; cancer; canislupushodophilax; china; dingo; dog; dogs; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; japan; japanesewolf; korea; newguinea; parasite; singingdog; weird

[SunkenCiv]

Fig 1. Map of the dog excavated sites with a photo of the skeleton of Neukdo1. In Neuk-do site, the dog bones were excavated from C District. In Bonghwang-dong site, the dog bone was excavated from the upper (northern) district. The base map of the Korean Peninsula was created using public domain data from the USGS EROS (http://eros.usgs.gov/). The map of Gyeongsangnam-do Province was produced using public domain GIS data provided by the National Geographic Information Institute of Korea (NGII), and all maps were edited using QGIS.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0346864

[SunkenCiv]

[Sirius Lee]

Bred for flavor as well as companionship?

[old school]

Yes! Definitely!

[SunkenCiv]

I’m only here for the Shih Tzu jokes.

[riverrunner]

Tastier

[old school]

I’ve been to places where there ain’t no tellin’ what I might have eaten (dog included)!

[woweeitsme]

I’m only here for the Bonghwang-dong jokes!

[SunkenCiv]

Study Suggests Korea’s Ancient Dogs Differed from Other East Asian Cuisine, er Canines.

[Wuli]

Korea is a peninsula and depending on its geography a peninsula can have attributes that isolate it, somewhat, like an Island.

The separation between the Korean peninsula and its neighbors to the north is noted by the Yalu River on the western side of the division, the Tumen river on the eastern side of the division, and in the middle Mount Paektu (Changbaishan): A sacred, active volcano and the highest peak on the peninsula, located roughly in the middle of the border area.

It would not be unusual for canine populations on the peninsula to interbreed more with other canines on the peninsula than with canines across the Yalu or Tumen rivers or the opposite side of Mount Paektu. Over a long period of time they’d have some standout genetic features marking them unique.

[thescourged1]

Self-basting?

[SunkenCiv]

The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping, alpha:

• Ancient DNA Reveals a Hidden Migration Network Across Peru Before the Inca [05/22/2026]
• Across Bronze Age Sweden, carved footprints point to a ritual for turning social ties into stone [05/19/2026]
• Archaeologists Enter a Hidden Luxor Chamber and Find 22 Painted Coffins of Amun's Sacred Singers With 8 Sealed Papyri Untouched for Centuries [05/18/2026]
• Chicks hatched from artificial eggs in scientific first -- it could a game-changer for bringing extinct animals back to life [05/19/2026]
• How Egypt's Great Pyramid Survived Thousands of Years of Earthquakes [05/22/2026]
• Hundreds attend funeral for Massachusetts World War II veteran with no known family, "He deserved this kind of send off" [05/19/2026]
• Melting Mountain Ice Is Bringing Ancient Secrets to the Surface. Archaeologists Are Racing to Find the Artifacts Before They're Lost to Time [05/23/2026]
• Officials unveil ancient tomb linked to Alexander the Great [05/18/2026]
• The Odyssey: Black Athena rises from the grave [05/18/2026]
• Revolutionary War soldiers will finally be laid to rest in Lake George [05/20/2026]
• 6-Year-Old Boy Finds 1,300-Year-Old Sword During School Trip [05/20/2026]

[SunkenCiv]

At leash.

[kawhill]

I wonder if they bred labrador retrievers, got one and he is crazy.

[thescourged1]

LOL, shame on you!

[FLT-bird]

I have 2 labs. They are indeed crazy when they’re young - like my 2 year old Chocolate Lab. They calm down a lot. My 9 year old Black Lab is still playful but the manic energy he once had (and the chewing/destructiveness) is gone.

Labs are the greatest.

[j.havenfarm]

My Lucy was my first lab. Sweetest dog I’ve ever owned. But she had full on Lab lunacy when she was a puppy. I asked a friend when she would calm down. He said “Maybe when she’s 2. Maybe never.” She calmed down when she was 7. Ran the hell out of her every day to get the excess energy out. Her vet described her as an “athlete”. Clean living and hard exercise got her just past the 14 year mark. Best girl ever. I miss her every day

[j.havenfarm]

Yeah. Shame on you! You’re a real heel

[packagingguy]

“Puppy very tender!”

[ebshumidors]

When I was stationed in Korea, I could eat anything in the ‘Ville but got the runs from the mess hall. Turns out I was lactose intolerant and always had milk in the mess hall.