Ritual Sacrifice May Have Shaped Dog Domestication

This story originally appearedin SAPIENS, an online magazine focused on anthropology.In the Siberian Arctic, the Ob River flows lazily across vast, cold stretches of tundra. In the city of Salekhard, Russia, where it meets with the Polui River, lie the remains of an ancient ritual site. Overlooking the floodplains, it is known as Ust’-Polui. It is thought to date back to 260 B.C. and to have been occupied until A.D. 140. The site has long fascinated archaeologists due to the huge numbe