About 50 km south of Tel Aviv, on the Mediterranean coast, near the ancient city of Ashkelon, archaeologists from the 1985 Leon Levi Expedition were digging under a hill when they unearthed over a thousand canine skeletons and skeletal remains dating back to the fifth to third centuries BC. This discovery was unprecedented as nowhere in the ancient Near East had so many dog burials been found at a single site and with no apparent reason for the burials. The discovery piqued the curiosity of many scholars, who have attempted to explain the motives behind the dog burials at Ashkelon.
A dog buried in Ashkelon. Photo credit: Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon
Source: amusingplanet.com