Horses And Dogs Were Found Buried Alongside These Iron Age People, Indicating They Might Have Been Cherished Pets

According to the authors of the study, dogs have appeared in human burials from at least the late Paleolithic period. The earliest documented evidence of the custom was in Born-Oberkassel, Germany, over 14,000 years ago.

“The appearance of dogs in funerary contexts, associated with human graves or not, presents a remarkable geographic distribution, with finds identified in Eurasia and the Americas and a chronological extension spanning from the Paleolithic to contemporary times,” wrote the authors in their paper.

The dogs in the Verona graves looked as though they were sacrificed for the burials, perhaps as a symbol for passing into the afterlife.

The societal status of each person buried at the site may also contribute to the reasoning behind the animal burials, as well as the funerary practices of the community.

“What we observe is only a fraction of the material aspects of the ritual. In addition to the inevitable loss of information due to the degradation of organic materials, the observed remnants provide only approximations, lacking crucial components of ritualistic performances like sensorial and gestural elements,” the authors wrote.

So, while the animals may have been pets, it’s impossible to say for sure due to the gaps in the researchers’ knowledge.