【AI前沿】Australian Aboriginals cared for a dingo's grave for decades

Can I pet that dog?Australian Aboriginals cared for a dingo’s grave for decadesFor some ancient Aboriginal Australian communities, dingoes were part of the family.Kiona N. Smith–May 18, 2026 2:37 pm|40Archaeologists and Barkindji custodians worked together to excavate the dingo burial.Credit:

      Barb QuayleArchaeologists and Barkindji custodians worked together to excavate the dingo burial.Credit:

      Barb QuayleText
    settingsStory textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth*StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers onlyLearn moreMinimize to navA thousand years ago, the ancestors of today’s Barkindji people carefully buried a dingo (or garli, in the Barkindji language) in a mound of shells.Archaeologists recently studied the burial in what’s now New South Wales, Australia. They found that the Barkindji ancestors had buried the dingo with the same care and ceremony as any beloved human member of the community and looked after the grave for centuries. The burial reveals that dingoes were, as Australian Museum and University of Sydney archaeologist and study co-author Amy Way puts it, “deeply valued and loved” by ancient people in Australia.The long-lost dingoFive years ago, Barkindji Elder Uncle Badger Bates and National Parks and Wildlife Service archaeologist Dan Witter saw bones eroding out of a road cut in Kinchega National Park, an area along the Baaka, or Darling River, in New South Wales, Australia. Badger recognized the bones as a dingo, lying on its left side in what was once a carefully built mound of river mussel shells.At the urging of the Menindee Aboriginal Elders Council, which worried that erosion would end up destroying the dingo bones and any information about the past they contained, a team of archaeologists, working alongside Barkindji elders, excavated and studied the skeleton. The bones turned out to belong to an elderly male dingo, with worn teeth and possible signs of arthritis. Broken and healed bones suggested that he’d lived a tough, active life but also been cared for by people.And the layers of shells around him revealed that generations of Barkindji had tended his grave and ritually “fed” him by adding shells to the mound for centuries after his death. This is definitely not the first dingo burial ever found in Australia, but it’s farther north and west than any other example. It reveals a far more profound and lasting relationship between ancient people and dingoes than outside researchers, at least, had previously fully realized.“This confirms these traditions were much more widespread than we once thought,” said University of Western Australia specialist Loukas Koungoulos, the lead author of the paper, in a press release.The dingo’s bones revealed healed injuries and possible arthritis.Credit:
                                  Amy WayThe dingo’s bones revealed healed injuries and possible arthritis.Credit:

      Amy WayHunting kangaroos and snoozing by the fireThe dingo’s bones tell their own story. Koungoulos says he was probably between 4 and 7 years old, which would be late middle age for a wild dingo today. Heavily worn teeth were the first hint of the dingo’s senior citizen status, but the ends of his leg bones also showed signs of bone decay, probably thanks to long-term inflammation: possibly something like arthritis.And he was shorter than most wild dingoes, based on the length of his femurs. That’s not unusual—domesticated animals are often shorter than their wild relatives, and it doesn’t take many generations for that to show up—but it could say something interesting about exactly how close wild dingoes got to domestication in the centuries before European colonists wrecked everything.At some point, the dingo had suffered a broken rib and lower leg. Koungoulos suggests the injuries look like the aftermath of a kangaroo kick and may have happened on a hunt. The injuries themselves aren’t too surprising; wild dingoes hunt kangaroos, andAboriginal hunters worked with dingoesthe same way people in other parts of the world have hunted with dogs for millennia. What’s more striking is that the two injuries were long-since healed. Somebody nursed this dingo back to health after his kangaroo encounter.“What stands out about garli is that he was old and well-cared-for,” said Koungoulos. “The healed injuries, worn teeth, and careful burial tell us that this animal lived a long life alongside people, and that his death was marked intentionally and with respect.”Barkindji elders stand with the excavated dingo skeleton; in the center is Uncle Badger Bates, who first identified the bones as a dingo.Credit:
                                  Amy WayBarkindji elders stand with the excavated dingo skeleton; in the center is Uncle Badger Bates, who first identified the bones as a dingo.Credit:

      Amy WayHow dingoes became beloved community membersPeople have lived in this part of Australia for at least 40,000