An Ancient Fighting Dog Kennel?

An old but interesting piece from 1987 in The New York Times by Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Thomas Friedman about a 2,500-year old Persian-era dog cemetery in Ashkelon with 1,400 dogs in it:

As riddles of the ancient world go, it will never compare with that of the Sphinx, but a mysterious 2,500-year-old dog cemetery discovered here this summer has archeologists stumped just as much.

A burial ground containing the graves of several hundred dogs, both adults and puppies, was uncovered by an American-led archeological team excavating the so-called Upper City of the ancient tell of Ashkelon, situated on a seafront bluff 30 miles south of Tel Aviv.

Judging from the intact skeletons that were unearthed, the dogs are all the same breed - what today would be called either a greyhound or a whippet. Each dog was buried with great care, placed on its side in an individual grave, with its tail wound around its hindquarter and the tip pointing down.

Greyhound?

That’s not a Greyhound skull.

Anyone want to venture what the local business here *might* have been about? 

Anyone else own a few Pit Bull and mastiff skulls for comparison? 

Anyone else ever heard of the Persian Mastiff of Sarabi?

This Ashkelon dog breeding business appears to have existed for about 50 years, which means it was probably associated with one individual or family -- the "Boudreaux's of Mesopotamia" if you catch my meaning.

Breeding this many dogs was an expensive proposition — meat has never been free.

The fact that this place was next to the sea, where dogs could be sold and transported to wealthy patrons over a wide area, suggests a 400-BC business model.