In previous episodes of Amplify Archaeology, we’ve focused on what life was like for people, but what was life like for animals in the past? In this episode we’re joined by Dr Ruth Carden and Dr Rebecca Boyd, who tell us about an exciting new collaborative research project seeks to dig into the story of Viking dogs.

In this episode of the Amplify Archaeology Podcast, Neil was joined by Dr Ruth Carden and Dr Rebecca Boyd, who discussed their fascinating new project Viking Dublin Dogs. This collaborative, grass-roots project seeks to discover more about the life and death of Viking and Medieval Dogs in Dublin and beyond. It involves exploring the historical records for references to dogs and wolves, and the examination of the skeletal remains of dogs, radiocarbon dating, isotopic analysis and a study of their DNA. The team hope that this work will help to answer questions about the origins of dogs and their relationship with wolves, whether dogs can tell us anything about status and society, the different type of roles that dogs performed, and whether the Vikings who settled in Dublin brought their own dogs with them from their Scandinavian homelands.

This is a really exciting project, so listen in to discover how you can help to discover the story of Dublin’s viking dogs. I hope you enjoy the episode!

(all pictures below are of our barkaeologist Peig)

Viking Dogs Show notes and links to further information

• You can discover more about the Viking Dublin Dogs Project here.
• And you can support them by visiting their dedicated CrowdFunder page here.
• Keep up with the latest news from the project on Twitter.
• If you’d like to hear more about Viking Ireland, check out this episode of Amplify Archaeology Podcast with Rebecca here.
• Please do leave us a review if you can, or share the episode using the hashtag #AmplifyArchaeology – it really does help us out so I’d be very grateful!
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