ANCIENT & NOT SO ANCIENT SIGHTHOUNDS
its descendents can be traced is called a clade . A cladogram is the chart that lays out the various descendents from the original clade. Therefore, one clade would include the European gray wolf, from which the traditionally European breeds of dogs evolved. A second clade would contain the population of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern wolves whose descendents traveled into North Africa and clear to Cape Point at the southern tip of Africa. The third clade included wolves that lived south of the Yangtse River in China. Some of their domesticated dog descendents would accompany the series of human migrations out of Asia and into the Americas. Other Asian descendents were part of the human migrations into Polynesia, Australia, and India. We must under- stand that there naturally would have been some overlapping of the boundaries and resulting types of dogs, but all of our domestic dogs came from one (or an admixture) of these three clades. BASAL BREEDS IN SIGHTHOUNDS Of the fourteen basal breeds identified so far, three are sighthounds; the Afghan Hound, the Saluki, and the Basenji. These breeds would have descended from the clade of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern wolves. Geographic and cultural isolation of these breeds from European dog breeding influences in the 19th century have con- tributed to their ancient genetic status, but it is currently impossible to discern which is the oldest. Suffice it to say that the Saluki and the Afghan contributed to the gene pools of a number of Southwest Asian breeds such as the various Tazi sighthounds and even the Mudhol Hounds found in northern India. Although the Basenji shares this ancient heritage, its extreme isolation for centuries in the jungles of Africa prohibited its influence in the creation of other breeds. The ancestors of the Basenji probably migrated into Central Africa from the north. An Egyptian tablet from 2,000 B.C. depicts this type of dog that has a more marked stop and a fox-like, sharply pointed muzzle. Its ears were pointed and erect with a tail that curled tightly over one side of the back. That description certainly matches the Basenji and points to its primitive genetic status. AND THE NOT SO ANCIENT One sighthound that has always been presumed to be a primitive breed originating in the Middle East is the Greyhound. However, once scientists could properly ana- lyze its genome, the centuries-hidden truth emerged. The Greyhound has an ancient heritage alright, just not quite as ancient as we had assumed. Along with several other sighthounds, the Greyhound has its genetic roots in Celtic herding dogs. The Celts introduced the Greyhound into Western Europe as they migrated out of their home- land on the steppes of Eastern Europe and Eurasia. Greyhounds and Greyhound- type dogs are common in central Europe, Spain, and the British Isles—everywhere the Celts settled. Actually, as early as 1853, John Henry Walsh, writing under the pseudonym “Stonehenge,” made a clear case for a Celtic origin for the breed in his book, “The Greyhound.” Their Celtic origin would place the Greyhound within the European wolf clade. As further proof of the Greyhound’s Celtic roots, the ancient Greeks were great seafaring traders all along the southeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Egypt and the Middle East. However, the Greyhound was completely unknown to them prior to 200 B.C., the time of their first encounters with the Keltoi—as they called the Celts—a tribal culture from the north. In 300 B.C., Xenophon made no mention of Greyhounds in his discussion of dog breeds in his treatise, “On Hunting,” because Greeks only had scenthounds at that time. But two centuries later, the poet Grattius wrote of the Celts’ dogs: “…swifter than thought or a winged bird it runs, pressing hard on beasts it has found.” The Greeks had seen the Celtic Greyhound hunt and they wanted it for their very own. Arrian, another Greek, who wrote in Latin, clearly identified the Vertragus, the predecessor of the modern Greyhound. The Celtic culture flourished from what is now central Europe, northern Spain, the Middle East, and north to the farthest reaches of the British Isles and Ireland. Every- where they went they took their dogs with them and left offshoots of the Vertragus. In Spain, it was the Galgo; in the British Isles, it was a bewildering array of sighthounds in a wide variety of sizes and coats, from giant dogs we now call Wolfhounds to “Tum- blers” (by contemporary accounts a Whippet-sized dog). The Celts made no distinc- tion among their sighthound varieties. To add to the confusion, English writers up until the 16th century called all the larger Celtic dogs “Greyhounds,” and the dog we call the Greyhound today, the “Coursing Dog.” Almost all of the Celtic sighthounds
(photobucket.com)
Photo Courtesy of Christina Frietag
Three of the ancient basal breeds are from the Sighthound Group. (Wikimedia)
The Greyhound has thoroughly Celtic origins. (greyhounddogsite.com)
262 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, JUNE 2021
Powered by FlippingBook