Paw Prints Found in Bricks From Anatolian Bronze Age Building

Archaeology Magazine ^ | November 2, 2026 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

La Brújula Verde reports that 4,000-year-old paw prints have been found in adobe brick at Tavşanlı Höyük, a settlement mound in western Anatolia that dates back some 8,000 years. The sun-baked bricks were part of a wall that collapsed during a fire in the Bronze Age. Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Turkey's Minister of Culture and Tourism, said that the prints had been made by a dog. Erkan Fidan of Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University and his excavation team have also uncovered ceramics, adobe, bone, burnt wood, and flint at the site. To read about other ancient canine prints preserved in brick, go to "They're Just Like Us."

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TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: anatolia; bronzeage; dogs; godsgravesglyphs

[SunkenCiv]

Adobe brick with dog paw print

Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism

[SunkenCiv]

I think there was a similar, much more recent artifact some years ago, from Roman Britain, a woof tile.

It's all in the setup.

[Veto!]

Nice. But today’s Turks are mean to dogs.
Cats are all over the place and many people feed them. Gorgeous cats!!!!

[SunkenCiv]

I recall an anecdote about Ataturk — as he was in his final year, he had a dream that he was going to be reincarnated (when it’s an animal, it’s called transmigration, for the sticklers out there) as a cat. That may be a garbled version, but it may have something to do with the overall cat proliferation in Turkey.

Doesn’t explain their proliferation in most tourist destinations, including a number of Greek islands...

[DannyTN]

Proof that dogs were here first. And mankind devolved from dogs.