Assyrian Mastiff

The Assyrian Mastiff,^[2][3] was a landrace of dog found in Assyria. This dog was often used as a livestock guardian against predators, as well as for lion and wild horse-hunting. The modern Assyrian Shepherd (more recently also known as the Kurdish Mastiff) may be a descendant of the Assyrian mastiff.^[4]

Assyrian Mastiff
A drawing of a terracotta tablet found in Babylon[1]
Origin	Assyria
Breed status	Extinct
Dog (domestic dog)

The name is most likely derived from the images of this type of dog that appear in Assyrian and other Mesopotamian reliefs dating from the 10th to 6th century BCE Neo-Assyrian Empire.^{[2][3][5][6][7]}

History

It is assumed the Assyrian mastiff had their ancestors in the region between India and Persia where they were domesticated and used as hunting dogs. Several mastiff type figures of the Assyrian era around 2000 BC were discovered with carved-in names such as "Consume his life", "Don't stop to think, bite", and "Catcher of the hostile one". More Assyrian relics depicting dogs can be found from between 1000 and 650 BC.^[8]

Description

In 1886, M.B. Wynn described the ancient Assyrian's clay tablet's depictions of the Assyrian Mastiff:

It is also worthy of remark that the Assyrians were always careful to define long hair when it existed, but in this specimen the stern appears free from any roughness, although so minute are the details that the very fraying at the end of the rope is depicted, the loose skin hangs down the face in enormous wrinkles or folds, and the lips were extremely pendulous evidently, although the mouth is marked by a slit or line in the usual conventional form of Assyrian sculpture. The ears are of medium size, chest very deep, and limbs massive, the head short and of great volumn, and muzzle short and truncated. There is a great similarity between this dog and some of our noted English specimens.^[2]

See also

• Assyria
• List of dog breeds
• Mesopotamia
• Dogs portal