Skeleton of sacrificed dog unearthed at the Domus Aemilia site in Tuscany

Archaeologists excavating at the Domus Aemilia archaeological site near Tassignano, in the Tuscan province of Lucca, have discovered the well-preserved skeleton of a dog, evidently sacrificial offering, dating to the foundation of the building between the second and first century BC.

Credit: Comune di Capannori

“The discovery of the dog, in a good state of preservation and laid on its side in a ditch created within the foundation of the perimeter wall west of the balneum (baths), is a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse into the operations related to the rites connected with building foundations in the ancient world”, says Alessandro Giannoni, director of the excavations.
“The construction of buildings or settlements, in fact, obeyed magical-religious prescriptions even before building began: these provided for the sacrifice of dogs and their ritual deposition, which can be explained both for its purifying function as well as its protective aspect. Although known primarily from written sources, this rite has been difficult to document precisely because of the particular position and location of the offerings beneath structures”, the archaeologist added.

Credit: Comune di Capannori

The aim of this year’s campaign was to complete the research on the site and verify it as a balneum. To this end, the investigations in the areas adjacent to the site were expanded and which added some important pieces to the history of the site.
In particular, an area immediately south of the balneum, which seems to have been used for water heating, was also surveyed. The investigations in this area, although not completed, have likewise allowed for the documentation of pre-existing structures destroyed in late antiquity.

The history of this site therefore spans at least five centuries, beginning with a domus built along the banks of the river Auser, at the time of the first Roman colonization of the plain of Lucca (180 BC) and subsequently refurbished in the 1st-2nd centuries AD, continuing in use until a female burial – named Aemilia (from which the domus gets it name) – marked the end of its residential use in favour of its use as a cemetery in late antiquity (4th-5th centuries).

Source: Repubblica [September 04, 2018]

TANN

Archive