The importance of combined study of human/dog remains in archaeology: the uncommon case of the late roman cemetery from Via Tommaso Gar (TN)

Cristina BASSI¹ / Valeria AMORETTI² / Alex FONTANA³
(¹National Trust of Provincia Autonoma di Trento / ²SUN Second University of Naples / ³MUSE Museum of Science in Trento, Italy)

Keywords: Combined methodology, dog burials, stillborn burials, late roman cemetery, rituals

Abstract:
In this paper we want to render the significance of the association human and dog burials in archeological excavation, through the study case of the mixed cemetery excavated in Via Tommaso Gar (TN) in 2009 by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici di Trento, during an urban archaeological intervention occurred in the centre of Trento city. The burial area, dated from grave goods to V century B.C., consisted in 23 human burials (7 adults, 4 infans, 12 individuals died in perinatal age), and 4 dog burials, all of adults dog, disposed beside a long wall.  In this site was clear the association of the dog burial with some little bones, interpreted during the excavation as offers of chicken meat. In a second phase the combined  anthropological and archeozoological analysis of the “offers” clarified that those little bones were pertinent to some individuals died in perinatal age, probably fetuses or stillborn. This fact open a discussion related to the role of the dogs, whose presence in ritual situations has commonly the interpretation of an archaic expiatory and purifier function. Another possible interpretation could be related to the role of the dog as a guardian of limes between the world of the livings and the word of the dead.