Mysterious funeral rituals or simple affection for one's pets: there could be various reasons for the presence of remains of dogs, horses and other animals in 16 pre-Roman burials found in Verona in the archaeological excavation of the Seminario Vescovile, dating back to the III -1st century BC.
This is what emerges from the study published in the journal Plos One by researchers of the Celtudalps project, co-financed by the Swiss National Fund for Scientific Research and the Province of Alto Adige, and coordinated by Marco Milella of the University of Bern and Albert Zink of the Institute for the study of mummies by Eurac Research.
In the necropolis, located along the eastern bank of the Adige, 161 burials have been identified, of which 16 also have animal remains.
They are mostly pigs, chickens and cattle, animals that were commonly eaten and therefore could represent food offerings to the deceased.
In four graves, however, the remains of dogs and horses were found, animals that are not usually eaten.
To find out the reason for their presence, researchers analyzed the demographics, diet, genetics and burial conditions of humans and animals, but the results revealed nothing useful.
In particular, people buried with animals do not appear to be closely related to each other, which could have suggested a funeral practice or rite typical of a specific family.
Even the people buried with dogs or horses are very different from each other: there is a child buried next to the complete skeleton of a dog, a young man buried with parts of a horse, a middle-aged man with a small dog and a middle-aged woman age buried with a whole horse, parts of another horse and a dog skull.
The lack of common elements suggests that different interpretations are possible: animals such as dogs and horses often had religious symbolism in ancient cultures, but at the same time they could simply be pets buried with their owner.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA