Puppy prints found in 1,500-year-old house

[Still Waters]

Archaeologists have discovered a fantastical-looking, 1,500-year-old house in Turkey that was decorated with illusory wall paintings and terracotta tiles on the floor with puppy prints and possible chicken decorations pressed into them.

The house may have been used by people involved with the military, the researchers noted.

"The tiles preserved the paw prints of puppies and in one rare case the hoof print of a goat," Frances Gallart Marqués, a former curatorial fellow at the Harvard Art Museums, said Jan. 6 during a presentation at the virtual joint annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the Society for Classical Studies (SCS). 

The animals likely walked on the tiles while they were drying out prior to firing, the researchers said. Drawings depicting what may be chickens or ducks were also found on the floor tiles; "these were finger-drawn before the tiles were fired," Gallart Marqués said.

https://www.livescience.com/ancient-house-turkey-puppy-prints.html