Museologia Scientifica e

Naturalistica
Volume 14 (2018)

1st International Conference

DOGS - PAST AND PRESENT -

An interdisciplinary perspective
14th-17th November, 2018

Abstract Book

Edited by
Ivana Fiore
Francesca Lugli

Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Ferrara

ISSN 1824 - 2707
Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Autorizzazione del Tribunale di Ferrara n. 36/21.5.53

Fiore I. & Lugli F. (Eds) 2018. Abstract del 1st International Conference
DOGS - Past and Present
volume 14 (2018)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15160/1824-2707/14/0
ISBN 978-88-964632-1-5

In copertina: Manifesto International Conference DOGS - Past and Present, 2018

ISSN 1824-2707
Copyright © 2018 by
Università degli Studi di Ferrara
Ferrara
 Annali dell’Università degli Studi di Ferrara ISSN 1824-2707
Museologia Scientifica e Naturalistica volume 14 (2018) pp. 27-28
Abstract Dogs. Past & Present - An interdisciplinary perspective - 1st International Conference DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15160/1824-2707/14/0
Editors Ivana Fiore & Francesca Lugli ISBN 978-88-964632-1-5

Faithful unto death. Burial, legend and heroism of the dog

from Antiquity to the contemporary Age

Jacopo De Grossi Mazzorin1, Ivana Fiore2, Claudia Minniti1, Antonio Tagliacozzo2

1
Università del Salento, via Dalmazio Birago 64, 73100, Lecce, Italy. A. jacopo.degrossi@unisalento.it. 2Bioarchaeology Section of Museo delle
Civiltà, P.le G. Marconi 14, I-00144, Roma, Italy. iva.fiore@gmail.com; antonio.tagliacozzo@beniculturali.it

“Lampo il cane viaggiatore” with Miro and Jacopo.

Among pets, the dog has always had a special relationship based on collaboration, trust, love and friendship
with humans, but humans are ferocious and also exploit dogs in various ways, sometimes with cruelty (i.e. dogs
sacrificed following the death of the master, abandoned, used in dogfights, dog meat festivals, etc.). The privi-
leged relationship between human beings and dogs is archaeologically attested in the Paleolithic and Mesolithic
and from different Natufian burials in the Near East. Yet even in these cases, man was cruel, as the dogs were
likely killed. In Italy dog burials are documented in the Neolithic: in Valdaro (Mantua) a dog was found in the
burial called “the hunter”, together with a set of arrowheads and blades, in Ripoli (Macerata) in a woman’s burial
site. During the Calcolithic in central and southern Italy canine burials occur more frequently, such as at Mirabel-
la Eclano (Avellino), Tursi (Matera), Gaudo (Salerno), Casale del Dolce (Frosinone), Ponte S. Pietro (Viterbo),
and Fontenoce (Ancona). In the Bronze, Iron and Etruscan-Roman Ages, the findings of dogs are numerous and
popular in Italy: cemeteries entirely devoted to dogs, such as that found along Via Nomentana in Rome, or cem-
eteries consisting of dog burials mixed with human tombs, such as the case of the necropolis in via Radicofani
at Fidene (Castagna et. al. 2014; De Grossi Mazzorin, Minniti 2000, 2006; De Grossi Mazzorin, Tagliacozzo
2000; Fiore, Tagliacozzo 2000). The dog is a guardian, a companion in life, close to the owner during transitions
and in moments of passage from life to death. The dog assumes particular significance in contexts where it is
27
associated with newborns or aborted foetuses (Peltuinum - Aquila and Lugnano in Teverina) where this animal
probably had magical or therapeutic value (Fiore, Salvadei 2012, Migliorati et al. 2018, Sperduti et al. 2018).
Its sacrifice in other archaeological contexts (Kolonos Agoraios of Athens, Eretria and Messenè) was considered
part of a purification ritual for the premature death of infants. This work aims to assess all findings of dogs as-
sociated with human burials, through a detailed collection of data on dog remains, their position, completeness
of the skeleton, description of the individual anatomical elements, number of individuals, age, sex, burning and
butchery marks. We will try to highlight particularities and differences among the different contexts and periods.
Dog burials continue through until the contemporary Age, contributing to wintness, along with the remains and
sources in literature, frescoes and paintings, films and comics, the extent to which the link between this animal
and humans is indissoluble. Our work ends with the most famous contemporary cases of legendary dog loyalty,
like those of Achiko, Pal’ma, Bobby and Lampo, just to name a few.

Keywords: Italy, Life/Death, Burial, Sacrifice, Legendary dog.

References

Castagna D., Gazzoni V., Berruti G.L.F., De March M. 2014, Studio preliminare sulle sepolture neolitiche del territorio mantovano: i
casi di Mantova, Bagnolo San Vito e San Giorgio. In M. Bernabò Brea, R. Maggi, A. Manfredini (eds.), 5000-4300 a.C. Il
pieno sviluppo del Neolitico in Italia. Atti del convegno (Finale Ligure, 8-10 giugno 2009). Rivista di Studi Liguri LXXVII-
LXXIX (2011-2013): 339-352.
De Grossi Mazzorin J., Minniti C. 2000, Le sepolture di cani della necropoli di Età imperiale di Fidene - Via Radicofani (Roma): al-
cune considerazioni sul loro seppellimento nell’antichità, in Atti del 2° Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia, Asti 14-16
novembre 1997, Forlì, pp. 387-398.
De Grossi Mazzorin J., Minniti C. 2006, Dog Sacrifice in the Ancient World: A Ritual Passage?, in L.M. Snyder & E.A. Moore (eds.),
Dogs and People in Social, Working, Economic or Symbolic Interaction, Proceedings of the 9th Conference of the Interna-
tional Council of ArchaeoZoology, Durham 23-28 agosto 2002, pp. 62-66.
De Grossi Mazzorin J., Tagliacozzo A. 2000, Dog remains in Italy from the Neolithic to the Roman period, in Anthropozoologica XXV-
XXVI, 1997, pp.429-440.
Fiore I., Salvadei L. 2014, I resti ossei di cani e neonati rinvenuti nei pozzetti II e III del teatro romano di Peltuinum: analisi preliminari,
in RendPontAc 84, 2011-12, pp. 387-402.
Fiore I., Tagliacozzo A. 2000, Deposizioni di resti animali nelle tombe della necropoli di Casale del Dolce (Anagni, FR): l’esempio
della tomba 4, in Atti del II Convegno Nazionale di Archeozoologia (Asti 1997), Forlì, Abaco Edizioni, pp. 201-211.
Migliorati L., Fiore I., Pansini A., Rossi P.F., Sgrulloni T., Sperduti A. 2018, Sepolti nel teatro: il valore simbolico dei cani in sepolture
comuni infantili. Scienze dell’Antichità 23 (3): 593-611.
Sperduti A., Migliorati L., Pansini A., Sgrulloni T., Rossi P.F., Vaccari V., Fiore I. 2018, Differential burial treatment of newborn infants
from Late Roman Age. Children and dogs depositions at Peltuinum, in Nizzo V. (a cura di), Antropologia e archeologia a
confronto: Archeologia e antropologia della morte. Romarché, Roma: 299-315.

28