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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 20h

Every buried dog tells a human story. For 15+ years I've studied ancient dogs to understand both their evolution and the people who lived with them. Looking into the past helps explain who we are today. #ancientdog #archaeology #genetics #books www.instagram.com/p/Denw-lThlJ0/

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 16/10/2026

The Molossus may trace its origins back to Anatolian farmers who entered Europe thousands of years ago with livestock and dogs. The real story is fascinating enough without the legends. More in my #book ORIGINS.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 16/10/2026

Even the 10th-century Byzantine Suida defines the Molossus from Epirus simply as "pastoral and broad." No ancient source clearly describes it as a war dog. Its world was the flock, not the battlefield.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 16/10/2026

Aristotle described the Molossus as an excellent livestock guardian. Virgil later paired it with Spartan greyhounds to protect flocks. Ancient sources consistently portray a livestock guardian dog, not a warrior.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 16/10/2026

Contrary to popular claims, the Molossus is not extinct. It survives today and is officially recognized by the Greek Kennel Club as one of Greece's native dog breeds.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 16/10/2026

The Molossus of Epirus is one of the most cited dogs in ancient literature. Yet most of what is said about it today comes from myths, assumptions, and modern marketing rather than historical evidence. #dog #lgds #history #stem #urbanlegend #AncientDna #book

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 15/10/2026

A simple gesture preserved for 12,000 years. Long before written history, dogs were already sharing human lives, homes, and perhaps emotions. Learn more in my #book Origins.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 15/10/2026

Was it a gesture of affection? Archaeologists remain cautious. What we know is that woman and puppy were intentionally buried together, creating one of the oldest known testimonies of the human–dog relationship.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 15/10/2026

Ain Mallaha belongs to the Natufian culture, one of the first sedentary societies of the Near East. The burial suggests that the bond between humans and dogs was already far deeper than simple utility.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 15/10/2026

12,000 years ago, in Galilee, a woman was buried with a puppy. When archaeologists uncovered the grave at Ain Mallaha, they found an extraordinary detail: a hand resting on the young dog's body. #dogs #ancientdna #archaeology #Neolithic #AinMallaha

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 14/10/2026

The dogs of Dust Cave remind us that the human–dog relationship was never simple. It was built on cooperation, affection, labor, and mutual dependence. I discuss these remarkable ancient dogs in my book Migrations, a journey into the oldest partnership in human history. #Dustcave ##archaicage

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 14/10/2026

This creates a fascinating contrast. The people of Dust Cave clearly valued their dogs enough to bury them carefully, yet those same animals spent much of their lives helping humans survive. Companions, workers, hunters and members of the community at the same time. #ancientdna #doghistory #native

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 14/10/2026

Archaeology reveals something even more interesting. Several Dust Cave dogs show vertebral abnormalities and skeletal wear consistent with carrying loads over long periods of time. These animals may have been the transporters of a world that had not yet invented the wheel. #archaeology #genetics

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 14/10/2026

7,000 years ago, the people of Dust Cave (Alabama) buried their #dogs with remarkable care. Some dogs were laid on their sides in deliberately prepared graves, suggesting that they were far more than simple working animals. A bond between humans and dogs that already went beyond utility. #stem

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 12/10/2026

Want to know where your dog really comes from? Forget legends; follow the bones, genes, and laws. Read about the Galgo in my book '30 Canine Mythologies' and my study 'THE ORIGINS OF SIGHTHOUNDS: A MULTIPLE AND COMPLEX GENOMIC FRAMEWORK' on Academia.edu.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 12/10/2026

The Galgo didn’t run through Roman forums. It was shaped in medieval fields. If your breed isn’t mentioned in ancient texts, don’t worry: 98% of modern dogs are less than 400 years old. History is selective. Myth is generous.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 12/10/2026

The Spanish Galgo morphotype clearly emerges only from the 9th or 10th century onward, when we first find poetry and legislation dedicated to this sighthound. Spanish lawmakers protected it. It wasn't just a dog—it was a cultural asset. Everything before that? Pure speculation.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 12/10/2026

Between the 8th and 10th centuries, Arab breeders crossed Iberian native dogs with Sloughis—and maybe Salukis. The result? A new type of sighthound. Not Roman. Not imported. Born in medieval Spain. The ancestor of the #Galgo español. #Doghistory #pets #arabs #genetics #stem #medieval #book

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 11/10/2026

Romans had kennels, breeding programs, and deep bonds with their dogs. Vindolanda proves it. Want more? My book ROMA CANES MUNDI dives into the canine world of ancient Rome. Taplink in bio. 🐾 #book

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 11/10/2026

One bulldog-like mastiff at Vindolanda had scars from boar hunts—and was treated by a Roman vet. Yes, vets existed in ancient Rome. #HistoryOfDogs #RomanVeterinaryCare

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 11/10/2026

Vindolanda’s excavations uncovered 8 dog types: sighthounds, mastiffs, terriers, miniatures… even dwarf dogs with oversized skulls. Selective breeding in Roman times was real. #Archeozoology

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 11/10/2026

Near Hadrian’s Wall, Romans bred Salukis and Afghans 2,000 years ago. Vindolanda reveals a canine world more diverse—and advanced—than we ever imagined. #AncientDogs #Vindolanda #history #romanempire #archaeology

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 09/10/2026

Why dogs? At Gonur they guarded household and herd, kept company, and perhaps guided souls across the threshold of death. Not property — presence. I recount these historical tales in *Heaven Can Wait*, a book about the ancient dogs of Central and East Asia.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 09/10/2026

Some burials resist easy reading. In one pit, seven dogs lay together — different ages, sexes and causes of death, interred at different times in reused graves. Elsewhere a dog was tied and struck on the head, left to guard a tomb forever.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 09/10/2026

The archaeology, point by point: • At least 3 dog types: guardians ~80 cm at the withers, shepherds ~50 cm, small dogs up to 40 cm • The large ones recall today's Turkmen Alabai • Dog bones show no butchery: they were not food.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 09/10/2026

Gonur Depe (c. 2300-1600 BC) was a capital of trade, craft and ritual. Its excavators documented about 30 dog burials holding 53 individuals — puppies to old dogs — placed beside human graves, sometimes inside the courtyards of royal tombs. #archaeology

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 09/10/2026

4,000 years ago, in the Turkmen desert, someone buried a small dog wrapped in a blanket sewn with tiny white beads. The cloth is dust. The beads remain. This is Gonur Depe, Bronze Age city of the Oxus. A thread on a civilisation that revered its #dogs. #ancientdog #bronzeage #centralasia

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 08/10/2026

From carvings to civilizations, the path of dog beside human runs deep. Heaven Can Wait retraces the emotional and scientific roots of this alliance.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 08/10/2026

Figurines from Lothal, remains in Mohenjo-Daro. Mastiff-like, pariah-like, local breeds — all shaping an ancient canine mosaic. A millennial spectrum of form and function.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 08/10/2026

Bhimbetka’s petroglyphs (6000–8000 years ago): A man walks with his dog, on a leash. The oldest walk together ever carved into stone — friendship without words. #book

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 08/10/2026

In a time before maps, cities or firelight, India held something timeless. Not just mystery or stone — but dogs beside man, long before history had a name. Welcome to a journey through ancient affections. #dogs #India #ancient #History #Archaeology #art

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 07/10/2026

Before Chaser, everyone thought dogs were just stimuli and commands. Then Chaser showed she could learn over 1,000 objects and even new ones. A #dog can reason in surprising ways when treated with respect. In my #book And Dog decided to meet man #stem

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 06/10/2026

Debunking the Egyptian myth doesn’t diminish the Italian Greyhound — it shows how human selection shaped an icon of elegance and speed. The real history is always better than the legends. Discover it in 30 Canine Mythologies.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 06/10/2026

The “pure breed” was born only in the 20th century. In the 1920s–30s, FCI/ENCI fixed the official standard (32–38 cm). Genetics confirms it: today’s Italian Greyhound descends from a small, recent founder population.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 06/10/2026

In the 1800s, the breed was close to extinction. To save it — and to reduce its size even further — breeders crossed these little sighthounds with small terriers, such as the Manchester Terrier. That’s where certain coat colors and their remarkable liveliness come from!

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 06/10/2026

Miniaturization began between the 1600s and 1700s. In European courts, the nobility started preferring smaller dogs for walking and salon life. This is when the “small” morphotype we know today appears for the first time.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 06/10/2026

In the Middle Ages, the “toy” Italian Greyhound didn’t exist. Italian sighthounds were medium‑large hunting dogs, similar to today’s Greyhounds or Whippets (as shown by Pisanello and Mantegna). Small dogs were considered selection accidents — useless for real hunting!

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 06/10/2026

Do you think the Italian Greyhound comes from Ancient Egypt? You’re mistaken! Science and history tell a very different story — far more fascinating and far more recent. Let’s open the thread. #dogs #italiangreyhound #history #genetics #book #ancientdna

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 05/10/2026

The Ripoli burial wasn’t just practical — it was spiritual. A woman and her dog, united in ritual and affection. Proof that love and status already crossed species. Uncover the emotional side of prehistory in my #book Origins.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 05/10/2026

How did a sighthound reach Neolithic Italy? Through the great migrations from Anatolia — the same people who brought agriculture to the Mediterranean. They also brought their loyal companions.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 05/10/2026

This was no ordinary dog. Its skull was long and narrow, its limbs light and built for speed — the ancestor of today’s sighthounds. A creature shaped by vision and movement.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 05/10/2026

In 1914, in Corropoli (Teramo), archaeologists uncovered a burial unlike any other. A Neolithic woman and her dog, resting together for 7,000 years. Not a myth — a bond written in bone. #dogs #sighthounds #ancientDna #stem #book

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 04/10/2026

I wrote about Assyrian dogs and their place in the society of that era in my #book *Origins*. If you are interested in ancient dogs, I recommend starting with this book—the very one that launched the journey that took me on a virtual trip into the past.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 04/10/2026

Appearances are deceptive. Dogs and soldiers are depicted in a lion and wild ass hunt. No war, no militarized dogs. The first true war dogs appeared much later: in the 16th century, deployed by the Spanish Conquistadors.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 04/10/2026

Assyrian war #dogs? A modern myth. The walls of the palace at Nineveh, built in the 7th century BC, have left us incredible scenes of large mastiffs and soldiers. War dogs? #ancientdogs #anciendna #ancienthistory #art

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 03/10/2026

I have written about this subject in all my #books describing the origins of the #dog and its ancient relationship with humankind.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 03/10/2026

Why the dog? It was the first animal to share with us space, time, and death. Zooarchaeology shows joint burials since the Paleolithic; genetics confirms an ancient bond. The dog is a universal archetype: guide, guardian, companion between worlds.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 03/10/2026

In China, Han tombs include protective terracotta dogs. In Northern Europe, Iron Age burials show dogs guarding the dead. In West Africa and Melanesia, dogs mediate between humans and spirits.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 03/10/2026

In Egypt, canine gods guided the dead through the Duat. In Greece, dogs appear in Orphic tablets and in vase iconography as liminal beings. In Mesoamerica, Xoloitzcuintli were buried with the dead to ferry souls across the underworld river. In Siberia dogs accompany shamans in ecstatic journeys.

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Giovanni Padrone 🇺🇦 @giovannip62.wsocial.eu · 03/10/2026

The Dog as a Global Psychopomp Across almost every continent, ancient cultures independently linked the #dog to the #afterlife. This is not a local myth — it’s a recurring archetype revealed by #historiography, #iconography, and #zooarchaeology. #stem #ancientdna #bookstagram

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