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Ashkelon dog cemetery
Archaeological site in Ashkelon, Israel / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ashkelon dog cemetery is a burial ground in the city of Ashkelon in Israel where possibly thousands of dogs were interred in the fifth to third centuries BC. The majority of the dogs were puppies; all had similarities to the modern Canaan Dog, perhaps representing the ancestral population from which the modern breed is descended. It is the largest known cemetery of this kind in the ancient world.
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Dogs are thought to be connected to the worship of Astarte in Ashkelon. M. Heltzer notes evidence from Sicily of a possible cultic link between dogs and the Middle Eastern goddess Astarte,[1] and Herodotus mentions that the oldest temple in Ashkelon was dedicated to Aphrodite, who the Greeks associated with Astarte.[2]