Mummified dogs reveal Tiwanaku people buried companions beside homes long before they became status symbols

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In the arid landscapes of southern Peru, around 1,100 years ago, someone carefully dug a small pit, laid down a woven mat and placed a young dog within as if sleeping, possibly wrapped in twine. Centuries later, the mummified remains would be one of only two intentionally buried mummified dogs from the Tiwanaku culture.

The naturally mummified dogs include a brown-and-white female just under 1 year old and a puppy no older than 3 months. Little is known about how the Tiwanaku treated dogs, but together, these mummies offer a rare glimpse into the lives of ancient dogs and how they may have been treated in life and in death.

"Everyday people living in a Tiwanaku colony had companion animals and treated them with care after death," said Susan deFrance, an archaeologist at the University of Florida and lead author of the study published in the journal Latin American Antiquity. "I think it shows that people experienced animal loss with emotion, although we can't know that with certainty."

Tiwanaku was an ancient Andean state that spread across modern-day Bolivia, Peru and Chile between A.D. 600 and 1000.

Dogs were an important part of ancient Andean society, serving as herders, companions and sacrifices. But what role dogs served in Tiwanaku remains murky.

This is because dog remains are rare at Tiwanaku sites, and those that have been found are sometimes mixed with fox bones, making it difficult to tell them apart.

That's what makes the mummies of Rio Muerto, a village site, and Omo, a ceremonial center in Peru's Moquegua Valley, so unique. In both cases, scraps of fur survived, confirming the animals were dogs, not foxes.

To find out their role in life, the researchers read the elemental fingerprints (isotopes) left behind in their bones, teeth and hair. Like a diary, these body parts record parts of an individual's life, from what they ate to where they grew up.

As it turned out, both dogs were locals, unlike the pack llamas that visited the region. They had spent their short lives in only one place.

When it came to diet, the Rio Muerto dog ate almost exactly what her human neighbors ate: a mix of plants and meat. The overlap suggests the young dog may have been eating scraps or perhaps leftovers.

But deFrance cautions against imagining a stray scrounging at a dump. "Concepts of trash and garbage are very culturally specific," she said. "The people living at Rio Muert