James Whitred

A Phoenician’s best friend. In the first half of the fifth century B.C., the area around the port warehouse underwent a dramatic change: it was turned into a huge dog cemetery—the largest uncovered anywhere in the ancient world. Seven hundred dog skeletons have been unearthed so far, all of them originally buried like the female and puppy shown: laid on their sides in a shallow pit, with legs flexed and tails tucked around the hindlegs. The western portion of the cemetery has been washed into the sea, leading excavators to believe that even more dogs—perhaps thousands—were once buried here.