New research indicates that ancient Americans valued dogs not just for their companionship and work ethic, but for spiritual reasons too. Hundreds of prehistoric canines — along with jewelry and other valuables — have been found buried with humans in tombs along the Arizona-New Mexico border. According to a report by National Geographic News:

“[D]ogs in the New World in the Southwest were used to escort people into the next world, and sometimes they were used in certain rituals in place of people,” [Dr. Dody Fugate, an assistant curator at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico] said.

Fugate’s database indicates that dog burials were most common between 400 B.C. and A.D. 1100.

“The earlier the [human] burial, the more likely you are to have dog in it,” Fugate said.

The canine remains also surprised experts by the wide range of physical traits they displayed, including both floppy and pointy ears, straight and curly tails, stout and wiry builds, and even white fur.

To learn more about how dogs figured in the lives of ancient peoples, visit Nature’s “Dogs that Changed the World.” There you can discover the origins of ancient breeds — including the Egyptian Saluki, which, like the dogs of the American Southwest, was entombed in burial rituals — and how selective breeding has led to poor health among purebreds today.