I’ve been seeing some good stuff here in Atlanta. Very interesting. Today I listened to a really wonderful paper on Southeastern pack dogs. They found sixteen of them buried in a North Carolina Late Woodland site. The older dogs all had significant back problems, including osteophytosis (arthritis), and deformed spinous processes (deformed spines). Obviously, they spent much of their lives carrying heavy packs. But the animals were clearly beloved, and two were even buried in the same pit several months apart. They animals may have been best friends, and their human owners wanted them to be together. Archaeology is such fun… Michael