Dog sniffing discovered 6 tombs 3,000 years old

Dogs help scientists find tombs containing human remains and some artifacts on the Velebit mountain range, near the Adriatic coast.

"It is clear that the nose of a dog does not smell," said Vedrana Glavaš, an archaeologist at Zadar University, the lead author of the study. Glavaš once found several graves in graveyards that existed since the 8th century BC at Velebit. Hoping to discover more graves, she contacted Andrea Pintar, a dog trainer to sniff the investigation, Guardian reported on October 24.

Dogs sniff the exact location of ancient tombs.(Photo: Guardian).

Several Belgian malinois and German shepherd dogs were brought to the archaeological site. Initially, for testing, Glavaš led them to the tombs that the team had found before but did not tell the trainer."We always use at least two dogs to confirm the location , " Glavaš said. The trainer and the second dog were also not informed of the tomb location found by the first team.

As a result, the dogs correctly detected all three tombs although human remains, antiques and surrounding land were moved. Even the tomb was exposed to sun, wind and rain after excavation. Glavaš thought that the surrounding porous rocks might have smelled so the dogs could smell it.

Next, Glavaš dropped them where there were many other graves suspected and discovered six new tombs. They are very accurate every time. These tombs consist of a small stone coffin in the middle of a circle of stone walls with a diameter of about 5m. Each coffin contains artifacts and small bone fragments like the fingers and feet of some people, most likely belonging to different generations in a family.

According to Glavaš, these people can be quite poor due to the harsh climate, windy and difficult to cultivate. So far, she and her team have not been able to unearth some tombs in Velebit due to lack of time and money.

Using a dog to scent a grave is a promising method because it does not harm the archaeological site and can be applied in situations where ground-penetrating radar or other techniques are not effective, according to Angela Perri, archaeologist. at Durham University. Humans have long capitalized on dog abilities as a form of biotechnology. "We are still finding new ways to ask them for help , " she said.

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