Researchers Discover Strange Iron Age Co-burial of Humans With Horses and Other Animals, Leaves Them Stunned
Researchers recently unveiled multiple discoveries from an archeological site they unearthed in northern Italy. The most captivating feature of this site for researchers was the series of co-burials at the place, Popular Science stated. Co-burials refer to graves where a human was buried with other beings, mostly animals like dogs, cats, and horses. Experts believe that owners could have put these co-burials in place to ensure that they have companionship in the afterlife. Another reason that archeologists have pointed out for these kinds of resting places is the unknown Iron Age funeral rites. Findings regarding the co-burials at Verona have been published in PLOSOne.
The archeologists analyzed the 2200-year-old Seminario Vescovile burial ground located just east of Verona for this study. The team found 161 graves in the area, of which 16 contained animals, either whole or in parts. The remains were all dated back to somewhere between the Third and First Century B.C.E. Twelve burial sites had the animal remains of cows and pigs which were used as food items during the Iron Age. This implied to experts that they could be food offerings for the departed soul.
The other four burial sites however contained remains of horses and dogs, for which there has been no evidence to this date of being used as food items during the Iron Age. Among the four graves, two belonged to men and the other two were of women. Of the two men, one was a middle-aged man with a small dog while the other was a young man laid to rest with parts of a horse. On the contrary, the women were found to be buried with adult and whole animals. Archeologists unearthed a 9-month-old baby girl and found a dog lying side-by-side to her. The last grave was most astounding to researchers as it contained a middle-aged woman with a pony and a dog's head right above her.
Initially, the team thought that the woman sparred on the battleground and therefore was buried with a horse which soldiers primarily used for riding in battles. "At first the excavators were surprised to find human legs under a horse, and the first idea was: we have a horse rider here, we have a warrior," says Zita Laffranchi, an archeologist involved in the project from the University of Bern, according to New Scientist. But they had to give up this theory, as they found no weapons in the particular grave. Typically warriors in the Iron Age were buried with their arms, and this finding implied that the woman did not belong to the group.
Researchers examined the human remains in the grave and found no genetic similarity and the ages of the dead were also quite different from each other. No evidence implied that the four were tied with a common thread to explain the animal remains in their graves. Hence researchers speculated that the animals were laid to rest with the humans because of the affection the latter felt towards them in their lives.
Another theory was associated with the symbolism of these animals in the afterlife. In the Gallo-Roman culture, the Celtic goddess of horse, Epona, was known to protect individuals in the afterlife and dogs were also linked to prosperity in the other realm. Some documents also suggest that dogs were buried with infants by parents, to prevent any further loss of babies. This assertion was backed up by the fact that animals found in the grave were well taken care of, especially the dogs who feasted on human food. Marco Milella another archeologist from the University of Bern believes that both symbolism and affection could be in play behind the call of placing animals inside human graves.