Monthly meeting of the Panhandle Archaeological Society

Please join us Goodwood Museum and Gardens’ Jubilee Cottage.  Reception begins at 6:30 pm with talk beginning at 7 pm. Feel free to bring a snack to share.

Scholars studying the European conquest and colonization of the Americas have long recognized that European weaponry and horses played crucial roles, both tactically and psychologically, in the destruction of Native American societies. Cannons and guns were loud and deadly, and the sight of men riding giant armored beasts was itself a psychological weapon. Another important player in the early conquest of the Americas, one that has been somewhat neglected in historical and archaeological research, is the dog. The Europeans’ use of dogs in warfare can be traced back to the late Middle Ages, and the Spanish used dogs against the Moors during the Reconquista. This practice was brought to the Americas during Columbus’s second voyage in 1493 and continued on in varying degrees throughout the colonial period. The dogs the Spanish brought with them, primarily mastiffs, greyhounds, and alaunts, were used in both warfare and for hunting escaped or fleeing Native Americans. These dogs were much larger and more ferocious than the endemic dogs of the Americas. Dogs of war were so important that they received wages, and dogs of particular notoriety sometimes earned wages higher than soldiers. In this presentation I review historical documents, artwork, and iconography from the colonial era to illustrate the important and brutal role of canines in the conquest of the Americas as warriors, hunters, destroyers of the environment, and even as a food source. I also discuss the scarcity of archaeological evidence, reasons for this scarcity, and the evidence archaeologists should be looking for.