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Wild or domestic? A 3D approach applied to crania to revisit the identification of mummified canids from ancient Egypt

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Abstract

Many of the millions of animals dedicated to the deities in Ancient Egypt were canids. In contrast to the rare textual sources, the abundance of skeletal remains offers the opportunity to address the question of whether wild or domestic canids were mummified. However, species identification from osteological material remains problematic because it relies on a simple qualitative appreciation or traditional biometric analyses with low discriminatory power, often paired with incomplete comparative reference samples. Here we propose a new method of identification based on cranial form using a 3D landmark–based geometric morphometric approach (GMM). We built predictive methods using a large reference sample of numerical models of crania of modern canids, including a variety of domestic breeds (N = 69, 38 different breeds) as well as feral dogs (N = 31), and all species of wild canids present in Africa or the Near East and likely to have been present in Ancient Egypt (N = 157). We then applied these methods to a sample of ancient canid remains (N = 41). We compared the effectiveness of multivariate discriminant analyses based on 3D GMM to that using traditional linear morphometric measurements (LMM) commonly taken in the field by archaeozoologists. GMM performs better than LMM in determining the domestic/wild status with cross-validation percentages reaching over 97.5%, and in determining the species among a reduced sample of wild canids with a 96.4% rate (versus 88.2% and 85.2% in LMM respectively). With 3D GMM, we detected the presence of dogs, but also African golden wolves and, for the first time, Near Eastern grey wolves among the mummies.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files). All three-dimensional models of the crania are available in SI 9. Detailed information about the sample and methods are provided in SI 2. Raw 3D coordinates of the landmarks considered in GMM analyses are in SI 3.

Code availability

The R code is available from C. B. on request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Museums for providing access to their collections, in particular Didier Berthet and the Centre Louis Lortet – Musée des Confluences (Lyon, France), Géraldine Véron and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris, France), Stefan Hertwig and the Naturhistorische Museum Bern (Bern, Switzerland), Daniela Schweizer and the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern (Switzerland), Christiane Funk and the Museum für Naturkunde—Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science (Berlin, Germany), Emmanuel Gilissen and the RMCA Museum, and the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. We thank Anne-Claire Fabre for providing 3D models of specimens and people who provided access to surface or CT scan facilities (including Anthony Herrel and the University Hospital in Jena, Germany) or financial support for some of the 3D acquisitions (including Greger Larson). AE received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union‘s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement No. 852573). We are very grateful to Anthony Herrel and two anonymous reviewers for proofreading this manuscript.

Funding

The research leading to these results received funding from the Fyssen foundation, the ‘investissement d’avenir’ project Labex BCDiv (10-LABX-003), and the European Research Council (Grant Agreement No. 852573).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Fondation Fyssen, 194 Rue de Rivoli, 75001, Paris, France

    C. Brassard

  2. MECADEV-UMR 7179, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, 75005, Paris, France

    C. Brassard

  3. ISEM, University of Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

    A. Evin

  4. Department of Archaeology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK

    C. Ameen

  5. Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum, Kaiserswerther Straße 380, 40474, Düsseldorf, Germany

    S. Curth

  6. Department of African Zoology, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium

    M. Michaud

  7. Department of Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Rome, Italy

    D. Tamagnini

  8. Museum of Zoology, Sapienza Museum Centre, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Building, Viale Dell’Universita 32, 00185, Rome, Italy

    D. Tamagnini

  9. Department of Archaeology, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    K. Dobney

  10. Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, University of Liverpool, 12-14 Abercromby Square Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7WZ, UK

    K. Dobney

  11. Department of Archaeology, Univeristy of Aberdeen, St Mary’s Building, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, UK

    K. Dobney

  12. Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., V5A 1S6, Canada

    K. Dobney

  13. Laboratoire d’Anatomie Comparée, Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, de l’Agroalimentaire Et de L’Alimentation, Nantes Atlantique – ONIRIS, Nantes Cedex 03, France

    C. Guintard

  14. GEROM, UPRES EA 4658, LABCOM ANR NEXTBONE, Faculté de Santé de L’Université d’Angers, Angers, France

    C. Guintard

  15. ASM-UMR 5140, University of Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, LabexARCHIMEDE, Montpellier, France

    S. Porcier

  16. Service d’anatomie, Ecole Nationale de Médecine Vétérinaire Sidi Thabet, CP2020, Sidi Thabet, Tunisia

    H. Jerbi

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  1. C. Brassard
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  2. A. Evin
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C. B. conceptualized the project, set up the study, acquired data, performed the statistical analyses, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. A. E., A. C., S. C., M. M., and D. T. provided 3D models for shape analyses. H. J. and C. G. collected part of the material and gave access to it. A. E. gave advise for the statistical analyses and was a major contributor in analyzing the data. H. J. is responsible for project administration and supervision. The manuscript was edited by C. B., A. E., A. C., S. C., M. M., D. T., K. D., and S.P. All authors gave final approval for publication and agreed to be held accountable for the work performed therein.

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Correspondence to C. Brassard.

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Brassard, C., Evin, A., Ameen, C. et al. Wild or domestic? A 3D approach applied to crania to revisit the identification of mummified canids from ancient Egypt. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 15, 59 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01760-1

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