The dog is humanity's oldest animal companion. But since when? The question has long divided specialists, with estimates ranging between 15,000 and 40,000 years depending on the methods used. A study published in 2026 in Nature (vol. 651, pp. 995-1003) has now significantly pushed back the limit of direct evidence: domestic dog remains have been identified and dated to 15,800 years ago at Pinarbaşi (central Anatolia, Turkey) and 14,300 years ago in Britain. More striking still, both populations belong to the same genetic lineage -- implying a dispersal across all of Eurasia as early as the Upper PalaeolithicUpper PalaeolithicThe final phase of the Palaeolithic (c. 45,000 to 10,000 years ago), marked by Homo sapiens in Europe, art, ornaments and a succession of cultures (Aurignacian, Gravettian, Solutrean, Magdalenian).→.

Cave wolf skull Canis lupus spelaeus, Upper Pleistocene specimen
Cave wolf (Canis lupus spelaeus) skull, Upper PleistocenePleistoceneThe geological epoch of the great ice ages (c. 2.6 Ma–11,700 BP), spanning most of human prehistory.→ specimen -- CC BY-SA 4.0

The Pinarbaşi site has been known for several decades as an Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer camp. Canid remains had been uncovered there during earlier excavations, but had never been subjected to such comprehensive DNA analysis. The international team sequenced complete genomes from several individuals and compared them to a database of several thousand living and fossil canids. The result is unambiguous: these are not wild wolves or intermediate forms, but fully domestic dogs.

Annotated wolf skull showing major anatomical structures
Annotated wolf skull showing major anatomical structures -- CC BY-SA 4.0

Wolf domestication is one of the most complex and debated events in prehistoryPrehistoryThe span of human history before the invention of writing, from the Palaeolithic to the Metal Ages, known mainly through material remains.→. It did not occur in a single place or at a single moment: several domestication attempts probably took place simultaneously or successively in different regions of Eurasia, and not all led to the lineage that gave rise to modern dogs. The 2026 study suggests that the founding lineage spread from western Asia into Europe with surprising speed, perhaps following human migrationsMigrationsLong-distance movements of populations; a major driver of human history (the exit from Africa, the peopling of continents, Neolithic and steppe expansions).→ accompanying the retreat of the glaciers.

Dorothy Garrod during the 1928 Natufian culture excavations
Dorothy Garrod during the 1928 NatufianNatufianA culture of semi-sedentary hunter-gatherers of the Levant (c. 12,500-9,500 BC) harvesting wild cereals and building the first round houses; it prepares the Neolithic.→ culture excavations -- public domain

The question of "why" remains open. What mutual benefit did wolves and humans derive from this early association? The most robust hypotheses invoke an initial commensal relationship: wolves attracted by food scraps from human camps, tolerated because they hunted rodents and alerted to predators. Gradually, the least fearful individuals were favoured, until domestication became intentional. The study of human-dog burials, such as the famous Bonn-Oberkassel interment (Rhineland, ~14,000 years), shows that this relationship had already reached a deep emotional dimension by the time of the Pinarbaşi individuals.