VERONA, ITALY—According to a Newsweek report, the excavation of a cemetery at the Cenomane site of Seminario Vescovile has uncovered the remains of 161 people, 16 of whom were buried with complete animal skeletons or animal parts. Zita Laffranchi of the University of Bern, Stefania Zingale of the Institute for Mummy Studies, Umberto Tecchiati of the University of Milan, and their colleagues suggest that some of the partial animal remains may have been intended as food offerings, but noted that horses and dogs were not commonly eaten in northern Italy between the third and first centuries B.C. For example, one grave contained the remains of a baby and a complete dog skeleton; another held a young man who had been buried with parts of a horse; a third grave consisted of a middle-aged man buried with a small dog; and a fourth held the remains of a middle-aged woman who had been buried with a whole horse, a dog skull, and parts of other horses. No genetic link was found among the people who had been buried with animals. The researchers suggest that the animals may have been pets, or were perhaps important to the person’s life, although the inclusion of animals in the burials could also reflect the person’s status, or specific funeral rites involving organic materials that have not survived. Read the original scholarly article about this research in PLOS ONE. To read about a Roman tomb uncovered in southern Italy whose walls were adorned with a painting of the mythological three-headed guard dog Cerberus, go to "Watchdog for the Afterlife."
