At Ashkelon, in Israel, archaeologists have found a very large dog cemetery.
The cemetery dates from the fifth century B.C., when that area was part of the Persian Empire.
So far, about 1,000 dog graves have been found in the cemetery.
Archaeologists are not certain about the reason for so many graves, but they believe that dogs must have been very important for the people there.
In fact,all of the dogs died of natural causes and were buried very carefully.
Perhaps
a. dogs were important in the religion of these people.
b. these people ate dog meat when they could not find other meat.
c. there were not many cats in that part of the Persian Empire.
d. these people wanted to get rid of all their dogs.