People from an ancient community in what is now northern Italy were buried with animals such as dogs and horses. These reasons are still unknown, but could indicate a long-lasting companionship between these people and their pets.

A recent study revealed that archaeologists uncovered 161 burials from the Late Iron Age, around 2,200 years ago, and found 10 percent of the people were buried with animals at the site in Seminario Vescovile, near Verona.

The research team looked for patterns that might explain the animal burials, analyzing the demographics, diets, genetics and burial conditions of the interred humans and animals–but the analysis did not lead to any notable correlations.

“The people interred with animals do not seem to be closely related to each other, which would have suggested that this was a practice of a certain family,” said study co-author Dr Zita Laffranchi of the University of Bern in Switzerland.

She stated that the absence of patterns in the graves means “multiple interpretations of the co-burials of humans and animals” remain possible.

Four of the people were buried with dogs or horses, including a baby next to a dog, a middle-aged man buried with a small dog, and a middle-aged woman buried with an entire horse and a dog skull.

Some graves had remains of food animals, such as pigs and chickens. A cow’s leg was also found in one of them. These may have been “offerings for the dead”.

“Animals like dogs and horses often had religious symbolism in ancient cultures, but at the same time, specific individuals may also have been buried with their animal companions,” explained Dr. Laffranchi.

The Swiss and Italian research team, whose findings were published in the journal PLOS One, also noted that the human-animal burial practices might have been determined by the interplay between different individual traits and societal customs.

This research, entitled “Until Death Do Us Part”, is part of CELTUDALPS, a project that explores the burials of dogs and horses with humans. It may reveal unknown beliefs and rituals during the last centuries BCE.

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