It seems that not only many pet owners of our time have the desire to have their beloved four-legged friend at their side even after death: More than 2,000 years ago, people in an ancient community in what is now northern Italy had themselves buried together with animals or animal parts.
As a research group from Italy and Switzerland describes in the specialist journal “PLoS ONE”, in addition to pets such as dogs, farm animals such as horses, cows and pigs also found their way into people’s graves.
Reason unclear
In an archaeological site near Verona, among the 161 people who were buried there in the 3rd to 1st centuries BC, scientists discovered the remains of 16 people who were buried with animals or parts of animals. Some of the graves contained the remains of animals that were commonly eaten by people back then – including many pigs, a chicken and part of a cow. The research team also discovered that four of the people buried there were buried with dogs and horses, which are not usually eaten.
The reason for these joint funerals is unclear. The research group tried to find patterns that could explain the animal burials. However, analysis showed that the people buried with animals were not closely related, which could have suggested the tradition or practice of a particular family. In general, the people buried are very different. For example, the researchers found a baby with a complete dog skeleton, a woman who was buried with an entire horse and several other horse parts, and a middle-aged man with a small dog.
Unknown rituals and beliefs
The lack of patterns makes it difficult to discern the exact motivations for the communal burials. On the one hand, the team suspects religious customs are behind this. Commonly eaten animals such as pigs, chickens or cows may have served as food offerings for the dead. Dogs and horses often had a certain religious symbolism in ancient cultures. But it is also possible that the shared burials were a sign of close human-animal friendships, according to the research group.
But a combination of both is also conceivable. According to the researchers, the graves and their contents can provide information or at least clues about completely unknown rituals and beliefs in Italy more than 2,000 years ago.
