Ancient settlement reveals remains of 1,800-year-old dog, baffling experts: Preserved quite well

Archaeologists recently uncovered the remains of a remarkably well-preserved dog from ancient Rome – and the discovery highlights the prevalence of ritual sacrifice in antiquity.The excavation findings were announced by SOLVA Archaeology Service, a government-affiliated organization in Belgium, on March 21. Archaeologist Arne Verbrugge of Flanders, Belgium, told Fox News Digital that the excavation took place at a former ancient Roman regional center, called a vicus, in the village of Velzeke.Pictures show the dog’s mouth largely intact; several teeth were retained, as well as its entire skeleton.The creature was found under a stone floor that aided its preservation, Verbrugge said.“Most of the bone we find in our region from the Roman period is already heavily decayed,” he said.

“In certain contexts such as wells or ditches, the conservation is slightly better.”He added, “Because the dog was buried under a foundation of highly calcareous sandstone, the remains are preserved quite well.”Dogs were used in “various ritual practices” in Roman times, the archaeologist said – even considered the “guardian” of a deceased human’s grave.The animals were often ritually killed to guide a deceased individual’s journey to the afterlife.But it appears the recently found dog was actually sacrificed for a building, rather than a human – which is a rare find in Belgium.“From [the Roman scholar] Varro’s work ‘De Re Rustica,’ it appears that dogs were sometimes used in rituals to purify land and houses,” Verbrugge said. “For the building sacrifice of Velzeke, it is likely that before they wanted to erect the building, they first ‘purified’ the site.”He said that “a relationship with ‘purification’ also appears from the practice of sacrificing dogs (and other animals) at the festival of the Lupercalia in honor of Faunus – associated with fertility and purification – as mentioned by Plutarch.”The stone building tha...