When Did Dogs Become Our Best

Friends?
A poignant, 2,000-year-old burial in northern Italy could
be the latest evidence of an ancient friendship.

The river known today as the Adige, the

second-longest in Italy, flows south and then east from the Alps to the Adriatic. As it travels
around hills and through flatlands, the river meanders widely, sometimes nearly looping back on
itself. The city of Verona took root and grew around one of these meanders more than 2,000
years ago and, around that time, not far from the banks, an infant was laid to rest in a humble
grave. She did not go into the afterlife completely alone, however. Alongside her fragile little
bones, its paws tucked as if napping, is the complete skeleton of a dog.

Archaeologists found the shared grave during excavations ahead of renovations at the
Seminario Vescoville. In a recent paper in PLOS One, the infant’s grave is dubbed B19, one of a
handful of “human-animal co-burials” in the Iron Age necropolis unearthed on seminary
grounds. While the researchers caution that there are more questions than answers about the
grave, they acknowledge that it may be the latest evidence of the unique and deeply ancient
role of dogs as human companions.

All told, the team from the University of Bern and other institutions found more than 160 graves
of men, women, and children at the site, and none of them were lavish: Most contained some
pottery, simple jewelry, or a few coins. A small number of the graves included the remains, often
partial, of animals such as pigs, goats, or chickens, which were likely intended as food offerings
for the dead. In four of the graves, including B19, archaeologists found the complete or partial
remains of horses or dogs, animals that were not eaten by the Cenomani people who lived in
the region at the time.
The meaning behind the four human-animal co-burials has stumped researchers. The graves
are from different areas of the necropolis, and recovered genetic material shows the individuals
are not from the same family, or even closely related.

In grave B46, an adult woman was buried with the complete or partial remains of no fewer than
five horses, livestock animals, and the skull of a dog. Grave B154 included an adult man and
fragmentary remains of a horse. Another adult male was buried in grave B102 with the scattered
bones of a small dog.

And then there is B19: the female infant and what would have been a fairly large dog, about the
size of a modern golden retriever. Based on its teeth and bones, the dog was just over 18
months old. A cause of death could not be determined for either girl or dog, but the infant was a
newborn, or possibly a late-term stillborn.

The infant’s age may be a clue to why the dog was buried with her: Elsewhere in southern
Europe at this time, particularly in Greece, dogs were associated with deities that oversaw birth
and childhood, and the animals were sometimes sacrificed when a child was born, to secure
divine favor.

The animal’s diet and an old injury offer possible evidence that it was someone’s
best friend.

It is also possible, the authors write, that the dog was a companion, perhaps even a beloved
member of the infant’s household, sacrificed not to appease a god but to offer the child
company, and protection, in the afterworld. In fact, there is something curious about the animal’s
diet—and an old injury—that could be interpreted as evidence that it was someone’s best friend.

By studying isotopes in the bones of both the B19 and B102 dogs, the researchers determined
the latter dog, buried with an adult man, had a diet typical of your average “eats everything” pup.
The B19 dog was different. It had eaten a diet extremely low in animal proteins, and composed
mostly of carbohydrates. The B19 dog also had an old, poorly healed fracture on one of its front
legs. It is possible—but speculative—that it had been a working dog, used perhaps for hunting
or livestock guardianship, until its injury. Afterward, perhaps unable to perform its duties, the dog
may have been doted on, fed the same porridge as human members of the household.

That’s just one of several hypotheses offered by the authors to explain the B19 grave, and it’s
likely the circumstances around the dog’s diet, death, and co-burial with the infant will never be
completely understood. But it seems strongly suggestive of the deeply ancient and special
relationship between dogs and humans, one that goes beyond domestication.

That’s no insult to cats, which appear to have been domesticated in the Eastern Mediterranean
about 10,000 years ago. A child-cat co-burial found on Cyprus from around that time suggests
at least some of our feline friends were pets that long ago. But dogs have been our companions
for much longer, and over a wider geographical range.
 A partial jaw and teeth from the
Bonn-Oberkassel dog, which died as a puppy more than 14,000 years ago; the young dog was
severely ill and required significant human care for several weeks before its death

However, over the last decade, researchers took a closer look at the remains for clues
preserved in teeth and bones. In addition to being more dog than wolf anatomically, the
Bonn-Oberkassel pup was likely a companion whose value went beyond utility—in a word, a
pet. The animal died when it was about seven months old, after a severe illness—likely canine
distemper, a viral infection that even today is often deadly (humans are not susceptible). The
young dog would have been too sick to hunt, guard, haul goods, or even feed itself, yet it
survived the infection for at least six weeks. The most likely explanation is that it received care
from humans, perhaps one or both of the individuals it was buried with, after death.

Researchers reinvestigating the Bonn-Oberkassel dog found the grave contained the tooth of
another, older dog, though its significance is unclear. Meanwhile, a team working in northern
Spain believes a 17,000-year-old leg bone found in a cave, too small to be from a wolf, belongs
to an early dog. In mountainous, cave-riddled southwestern France, a separate team found
what they describe as the oldest-known double burial of dogs, dating to around 12,000 years
ago; multiple dog burials that are about 10,000 years old have been found in Illinois; and later
prehistoric burials of dogs—sometimes with humans, sometimes without—have been found
from Egypt to Russia’s Lake Baikal.

We may never know for certain the reason a large dog was buried beside an infant girl in Iron
Age Verona. But, whether as a sacrifice, guardian, or companion in the afterlife, the animal’s
remains are evidence of a special connection, one far older than civilization itself.

Does America Have a Gerontocracy

Problem?
Exploring the politics of age and the fraught debate over
what—if anything—should be done about Washington’s
very old guard.
Americans apparently agree on at least one thing: age matters. A recent CBS News poll shows
that large, bipartisan majorities believe there should be maximum age limits for elected officials,
with nearly half of those surveyed saying the cutoff should be 70 years old. That, of course,
would eliminate the two presumptive candidates in next year’s presidential election. If Donald
Trump, 77, manages to reclaim the White House in 2024, he would become the oldest person to
ever win a presidential election. The same goes for Joe Biden, already the nation’s
oldest-serving president at age 80.

It’s not just presidential politics that’s graying. High profile health scares for Democratic Sen.
Dianne Feinstein and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have brought increased
attention to the fact that this U.S. Senate is the oldest in its history, with an average age of 63.4
years, and nearly a quarter of the body over age 70.

How did a country that ostensibly worships youth come to be led by one of the oldest political
classes in the democratic world? And how much of a problem is it, really? Read on to explore
the politics of old age from all sides, including whether voters actually punish candidates for too
many candles on their birthday cakes.

Aging Politicians Are Only Going To Get

More Common
Presidents are getting older and older. Former President Donald Trump was the oldest person
to assume office when he was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017, and President Biden broke that record
four years later. If either is elected again next year, at ages 78 and 81, respectively, they will be
older than the previous record holder, Ronald Reagan, was when he left office at the age of 77.

The possibility of an octogenarian on the presidential ticket is worrying many Americans —

perhaps because it’s not just the presidency that’s aging. The current Congress, with a median
age of 65 in the Senate and 58 in the House, is the oldest in history. Last week, when Senate
Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81, seemed to freeze while speaking for the second time in
two months, there were renewed calls for him to step aside, and 90-year-old California Sen.
Dianne Feinstein has been under similar scrutiny after a series of health issues. Former U.N.
ambassador Nikki Haley, who is 51 and running for the Republican nomination, has called for
competency tests for candidates older than 75, and her opponent Vivek Ramaswamy, a
38-year-old entrepreneur, has said it’s time for a new generation to step up and lead.

Voters are worried about the age of candidates and elected officials, especially when it comes to
Biden. The vast majority of American adults, 77 percent, say he is too old to be effective for
another four years, according to an AP-NORC poll in August. Fifty-seven percent of registered
voters thought age severely limited President Biden’s ability to do his job in an
Economist/YouGov poll from August. Similar questions were asked about Feinstein and
McConnell, about whom 60 percent said the same.

But will voters actually start rejecting candidates because of their age? There are plenty of
reasons why older politicians continue to hold the levers of power — and the structure of our
political system makes it hard to force them to let go, even as Americans’ concerns about the
country’s aging political leadership mount. That’s why Americans may continue to support older
politicians when they’re in the voting booth, even as they say they prefer a younger leadership
cohort.

Americans are increasingly worried about politicians’ age

Biden might be the oldest president in U.S. history, but worries about whether presidents are too
old for the job have been floating around for a while. Americans became increasingly worried
about Reagan’s age during his tenure. At the start of his second term in 1985, 33 percent of
respondents in an ABC/Washington Post poll said Reagan was too old to be president, but by
1987 that number had risen to 42 percent. And a January 1987 poll from Louis Harris &
Associates found that 48 percent of respondents agreed with the statement that Reagan was
getting too old to be president.

In the modern era, presidents have traditionally released details about their health, and the
public has demanded transparency, because the job is physically and mentally demanding and
voters want to ensure that the person they elect is the one doing it. Anxieties about that have a
basis in past events: President Woodrow Wilson was able to hide the effects of a stroke in 1919
from most of the American public, and his wife, Edith, essentially acted as de facto president
until his second term ended in 1921. Later, in 1967, the ratification of the 25th Amendment
outlined what should happen if a president died or became incapacitated.

But presidents haven’t always been forthcoming with information. In the absence of diagnoses,
voters have often relied on outward signs that their candidates might be unable to do their jobs.
Perhaps the most obvious is a candidate’s age, simply because we face the greater chance of
serious medical problems and death the older we get.

But in practice, it’s hard to draw bright lines — in part because age is far from a perfect proxy for
health. Some older politicians are perceived as more capable than others: Thirty-four percent of
voters thought the age of Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is almost 82, severely limited his ability to
do his job in the August Economist/YouGov poll, and 28 percent said age would limit Trump’s
ability to be president if he were elected again. Those differences suggest that it’s not just
ageism, but the specific health conditions of some politicians being reported in the media that
voters are responding to; or, in Biden’s case, reporting on every stumble on the stairs to Air
Force One.
The health conditions that can come with age, even chronic ones that require accommodations,
don’t necessarily mean that elected officials can’t effectively serve, either, which speaks to a
broader issue on how voters make assumptions about candidates’ fitness for office. For
example, people with physical and mental disabilities are underrepresented in government, with
only 1 in 10 elected representatives having a disability, while nearly 16 percent of adults in the
overall population have one, according to a study from Rutgers University. As Pennsylvania
Sen. John Fetterman’s campaign showed, candidates can face discrimination when disabilities
are conflated with cognitive ability. The need for accommodation doesn’t mean an elected
representative is unable to work. “You also don’t want to lose the potential contributions of
somebody who is older but is quite talented and also now has the benefit of experience to bring
to the table,” said James M. Curry, a political scientist at the University of Utah.

Some voters, though, think we should have clearer rules about when a politician is too old to
serve. Sixty-seven percent of respondents strongly or somewhat supported an age limit for
serving in the Senate in a YouGov/UMass Amherst poll from June, and 58 percent of adults
thought age limits for serving as president would be a good idea in a Marist poll from last
November. Sixty-eight percent of respondents favored mental competency tests for candidates
over 75 in a YouGov/Yahoo survey from February. A plurality, 48 percent, think the job of
president is too demanding for someone over 75, according to a CBS/YouGov poll from June.
And overall, Americans’ preference for younger leadership is clear: About half of Americans
think the ideal age for a president is someone in their 50s, according to the Pew Research
Center.

The risk of a politician becoming unable to do their job isn’t the only worry that might be fueling
these perceptions. The age of voters and the members of Congress they elect means that
programs and issues important to older voters, from Social Security to elder abuse, are more
likely to get attention than issues more important to younger voters, like student loans.

“I think the biggest reason that younger Americans want younger lawmakers is they feel they’re
not well represented by older Americans, both from a standpoint of the things that older
representatives might focus on or talk about that are different from what a younger candidate
might talk about,” but also because, like all Americans, they want to see themselves
represented in government, Curry said. Younger Americans are missing that representation
now. “It makes them less satisfied with their representative government and less satisfied with
their democracy,” he said.

It’s also possible, though, that despite what they say, voters prefer reelecting someone with
experience and seniority. “The Constitution sets minimum ages for the presidency and for the
U.S. House and U.S. Senate, but it doesn’t set a maximum,” said William J. Kole, the author of
the forthcoming “The Big 100: The New World of Super-Aging.” “And you have to believe that
the Framers clearly valued experience over youth. That’s part of our DNA in some ways,
politically.”
But our system could ensure that older politicians stay in
power
There are a few factors contributing to our aging politics, and they provide a hint as to why
voters are choosing older candidates despite saying in polls that they would prefer younger
ones. The first is simple demographics. Older voters are more likely to vote and are more likely
to choose candidates closer to their age. Younger generations of voters didn’t overtake the Baby
Boom generation until 2018. Millennials now outnumber Baby Boomers as America’s largest
generation, but the youngest millennials, at age 25, are just now old enough to qualify to run for
federal office. The Constitution requires candidates for the U.S. House to be at least 25 and at
least 30 for the Senate, and most candidates have prior experience before running for those
big-ticket spots. They also need to build name recognition and a fundraising base. Because of
that, even Gen X and Millennials are still lagging in representation.

That leaves Baby Boomers overrepresented in Congress, taking almost half the positions. And
it’s also difficult to force older generations to let go of power if they don’t want to step down.
There’s a strong incumbency bias for federal office, and the current structure of Congress
rewards seniority, enabling longer-serving members with plum committee assignments to get
more attention for their constituents’ needs. In the past century, average lengths of service for
members of Congress have increased as members have become more likely to seek and win
reelection.

The cost to run for office has also increased, and incumbent politicians have a huge fundraising
advantage. In the U.S., the decision on whether to run for reelection is largely left to the
candidates themselves. In countries with different systems, governing bodies can be more
representative because parties can exert more pressure on candidates to leave and more
effectively recruit younger members to serve. It may be that American voters aren’t electing
younger candidates because they don’t have the options in front of them.

As Americans continue to live longer and longer, this may just be the future of politics. “I think,
honestly, it’s up to older leaders to be self-aware enough to find the time to step aside,” Kole
said.

A Guide to Rewilding Your Living Space

Manicured lawns and uprooted dandelions are so last
century. Here’s how you can transform your yard,
balcony, or back patio into a sustainable ecosystem
where plant and animal life can thrive.
 Most American yards don’t reflect their
ecological condition. The plants need to be treated with fertilizer because the soil’s not right.
They want water the weather doesn’t provide. Wildlife disappears because they no longer have
food to eat. All this creates more labor for homeowners, the humans in this ecosystem, because
they’re working against nature instead of with it.

“A garden that’s planted purely by aesthetic decisions is like a car with no engine,” says Larry
Weaner, founder and principal of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates in Glenside,
Pennsylvania. “It may look beautiful, the stereo works great, but you’re going to have to push it
up the hill.”

A yard should have an engine. You just have to grow plants adapted to your landscape and
work with wildlife instead of trying to control it, which will foster diversity and stability in your
local ecosystem. More than ornaments, plants have functions in a regenerative system. When
you engage the natural landscape, you reconnect to your region and your ecosystem, and
create a piece of land that reflects its place. Here’s how.

Step 1: Understand Your Land

The great likelihood is that you’re

going to be adapting to the conditions you already have. Those conditions might
not appear to be “optimal” in the traditional horticultural sense. But plants grow in
the wild without fertilizer. Survivors adapt, learning to love even marginal soil.
They also forge relationships with other plants, animals, and the microbiology of
the soil. These relationships become the foundation of a sustainable and resilient
landscape.

Get to know your climate

Temperatures, average rainfall. Look up where you fall on the USDA’s Plant
Hardiness Zones and Koppen Climate Classification maps. Hike in nature
preserves near your house, visit demonstration gardens, go on home tours,
walks, and lectures offered by your area’s native plant society to learn about the
plants of your region. Note which plants you like how do they grow? On a forest
floor? In a meadow? What do they grow with? Or do they grow alone? You can
learn more about soil types and climates that plants prefer by cross-referencing
their location with specialty maps on The Biota of North America Program’s
website: bonap.org.

Notice where you admire the larger structure of the landscape. It could be light
falling through trees, or maybe a sense of spaciousness. Understand the aspects
of nature that you respond to viscerally for design inspiration.

Get to know your yard

Watch the light exposure morning, midday, and evening, and consider how it
changes, especially during the spring and fall when the sun angle shifts quickly.
What direction does your house face? Do you have walls, fences, or trees that
impact light or airflow? Are you on a hill? How is the water moving through your
property? Hold a scoop of soil in your hand to see how it holds moisture. Get a
soil test—not to change it, but to know what you’re working with. Take pictures,
draw maps describing the microclimates created by sun, shade, water, and soil.
These will be your planting zones, and they’ll help you figure out what to plant
and where to plant it.

Step 2: Design Your Space

 Now that you’ve observed, ask…What
plants will thrive in my yard? In other words, what does nature want? And what
do I want? Where these desires meet will be the foundation of your design.

Is it a priority to have an extremely low-maintenance landscape? Keep your

selections simple. Don’t bring in too many plants with different care requirements.
(Always factor maintenance into design.) If floods are an issue in your area, think
trees or a rain garden full of evergreen plants that like having wet feet. Do you
want to attract butterflies or birds? Consider what canopy layers you have in your
yard— groundcover, small shrubs, large shrubs, small trees, large trees,
recommends Susie Peterson, backyard habitat certification program manager for
Columbia Land Trust and the Portland Audubon Society. “Different birds, different
bees, different kinds of wildlife, live at different levels.”

Choose your plants

Long-term, native perennials will create a more stable, low-maintenance

landscape. While native plants are essential to local wildlife— especially the
keystone genera (which make up only 5 percent of the area’s native species but
produce 75 percent of the food) Ninety percent of insects only eat the leaves of
plants with which they co-evolved. They, in turn, feed the birds and other animals.
The more diverse an ecosystem is, the more species it contains, the more stable
and productive it is,” says ecology author and University of Delaware professor
Doug Tallamy. “The single biggest thing you can do to make an impact on local
habitat and rainwater absorption is planting trees,” says Peterson.

Buy plants from a good nursery

Native plants are also known as “local eco-types.” A beech tree grown in Florida
won’t do well in a Pennsylvania winter even if it’s the same species, so ask
nurseries about the provenance of the plants.
Once you find a good nursery that takes eco-type into account, tell them about
your site, and they can help you select good choices for your yard. You can also
find local plant sales through native plant societies and conservation districts. If
you research how plants propagate, nature will donate to the cause.

Step 3: Prepare the Site and Install

Remove invasive plants

Check in with your soil conservation district to get a list of the invasive species of
your area. Odds are, you have at least one invasive species in your yard, and its
offspring will rapidly spread to your local natural areas, reducing their ability to
support wildlife. Handpulling to remove is best. But if it’s an established woody
plant, you may need professional help. Tree companies can grind out the roots.
Or you can rent a grinder and do it yourself.

Your soil and water conservation district can connect you with contractors, and
sometimes they offer grants to help cover the cost.

Start small

Choose one of the micro regions you found in your yard and clear a bed no
larger than 150 square feet. See how much you can create before you take on
more. “Your neighbors are going to appreciate something that’s done well,” says
Scott Woodbury manager of Whitmire Wildflower Garden in Gray Summit,
Missouri. “But nobody wants something that became a weed patch because you
bit off more than you could chew.”

Don’t amend the soil

“There are plants—beautiful ones—that are adapted to pretty much every soil
type,” says Larry Weaner, “If you make the soil perfectly rich, you can grow pretty
much anything you want, but the weeds are going to grow beautifully. I’d rather
work with the soil that’s there and the plants that are adapted to that soil. They’ll
form a denser, thicker, weed-suppressor cover more quickly.”

Cover the ground

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” says Claudia West, coauthor of Planting in a

Post-Wild World and principal at Phyto Studio in Arlington, Virginia. “Bare soil,
even if it’s covered with mulch, is not stable or persistent. The first step to making
a planting that needs less maintenance is to fill every inch of a garden with
desirable plants as densely as possible.”

Landscape plugs—small seedlings sold in flats—spaced at 10 to 12 inches on

center or growing from seed are the most cost-effective ways to do this.
Depending on the planting, you may need to mulch around the plants during the
establishment phase to suppress weeds.

💡Instead of raking the leaves to the curb, spread them under your trees and
shrubs. Tiny insects will make their homes there, feeding birds. Plus: free mulch!
Provide containers of water at different depths, at different heights. One inch for
pollinators. Three inches for small birds, placed higher up since they're
vulnerable to predators. Change the water once a week.

Step 4: Maintain It

Give it time to become established

The establishment phase is about two years. “In the early stages, you’re sorting
out what you’re going to allow to become dominant,” says Weaner. So think of
those first few years as a continuation of the design process. You help your
plants beat out the weeds, but you also help them find balance with one another.

If one grows slowly compared to another, you may need to cut the faster plant
back the first few years so the other can survive.

Long-term

Instead of weekly maintenance, you’ll transition to seasonal projects like

deadheading a shrub for more blooms or cutting back perennial
grasses—practices to help the plants be the best versions of themselves. Weeds
will still arrive from time to time. Spot-treat by cutting down at the base. Shaded
by groundcover, they won’t be able to compete with your plants.

Mow your lawn high

Learn the appropriate mowing height for your grass—it’s different depending on
the varietal. And never remove more than one-third of the blade. Cutting low
decreases the plant’s rooting, which inhibits water and nutrient uptake. Clippings
recycle as much as 50 percent of the nitrogen that grass needs back into the soil.
If you mow a quarter acre or less, consider switching to a reel mower. Gas lawn
mowers are statistically 25 times more polluting than cars. For an acre or less, try
an electric mower with a rechargeable battery.

Water less

Grass needs one inch of water per week during the growing season. East of the
Mississippi, as long as you don’t mind dormancy during a drought—meaning, it
may look crispy and brown, depending on the type, but still be very much alive —
you don’t need to irrigate your lawn. Most varieties of grass will tolerate drought
stress better than people realize.

Organize it

From Claudia West: Make your yard look even better with frames, which can be
as simple as a neat and tidy fence, a curb, a mowed edge with a couple feet of
turf or clipped hedges. Maintaining the edges, adding a bench—these are cues
of care that indicate the planting is something you intended to create.

Make it pretty!

Pay attention to what blooms when, and factor seasonal shifts of color into your
design. Says West: “You probably remember in fall when entire fields bloom in
goldenrod, a sea of yellow. Or spring when you walk near a floodplain and see
millions of Virginia bluebells. What if 20 percent of your planting erupted in
purple, pink, white, or orange? That’s a spectacular event.”

Designs are more successful when we choose a language based on an ancient

perception of beauty.

Step 5: Support It
 Watch how the landscape evolves.
“Don’t be discouraged if some of the plants in your palette don’t do well, even
though you did the research,” says Max Kanter, cofounder of Saturate, an
ecologically minded gardening company in Los Angeles. Some might not be
placed quite right, while others will thrive in ways you didn’t expect. “Start to
practice the idea that the garden is a process,” he says. It’s not an installation or
a transaction; it’s a relationship.

You’re not just giving your yard back to nature. You’re sharing it, which in a way,
is giving yourself back to nature, too.