2,000-year-old skull reveals Romans may have started our lapdog craze, study says

Traces of ancient Rome can be found throughout our society, including in our architecture, legal system and calendar.

Now, new evidence suggests the early Romans had a hand in creating something else that is dear to many: the humble lapdog.

Inhabitants of the Roman Empire may have been the first to breed brachycephalic dogs, a group of flat-faced canines that includes French bulldogs and pugs, according to a study recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Researchers, who are affiliated with universities in Turkey and Poland, came to this conclusion after discovering and analyzing the skull of an ancient dog.

The skull was found in a tomb in the ancient city of Tralleis, located in western Turkey, during an excavation in 2007, researchers said. However, it was not examined until 2021.

After radiocarbon dating was performed, it was determined that the canine had lived around 169 B.C., a period when Tralleis was a colony of Rome.

The animal’s purposeful deposition in the tomb suggests its role “in human life could be important and its social position might be rather high,” researchers wrote, adding that its relatively unscathed teeth provide further evidence that it was a beloved pet, not a working animal.

“Maybe it was the best friend and companion of the deceased, who probably included in his last will the wish of a common burial,” researchers wrote.

Cranial measurements taken indicate the animal had proportions similar to that of a French bulldog or Pekingese, researchers said.

Based on this observation — and a similar finding in Pompeii — researchers concluded that lap dogs were likely first bred during the Roman period and became more popular as time went on.

The Romans are credited with being the first to create “fully-fledged” methods of dog breeding, researchers said. And they understood that selection affected not just an animal’s appearance, but their behavior as well.

They grouped dogs into three categories: “a heavy guard dog used as a farm dog, a fast and strong shepherd dog, and a larger than medium-sized hunting dog.”

Wealthy Romans were also willing to pay large amounts for desired breeds — just one more aspect of the Roman era that has carried through to today’s society.

This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 6:22 PM with the headline "2,000-year-old skull reveals Romans may have started our lapdog craze, study says."