Document type : Scientific news item published in Science.
Author: David Grimm
Preview: The cats and dogs lie as if asleep, in individual graves. Many wore collars or other adornments, and they had been cared for through injury and old age, like today's pets. But the last person to bury a beloved animal companion in this arid Egyptian land on the coast of the Red Sea did so nearly 2000 years ago.
The site, located in the early Roman port of Berenice, was found 10 years ago, but its purpose was mysterious. Now, a detailed excavation has unearthed the burials of nearly 600 cats and dogs, along with the strongest evidence yet that these animals were treasured pets. That would make the site the oldest known pet cemetery, the authors argue, suggesting the modern concept of pets wasn't alien to the ancient world.
"I've never encountered a cemetery like this," says Michael MacKinnon, a zooarchaeologist at the University of Winnipeg who has studied the role of animals across the bygone Mediterranean but was not involved with the new work. "The idea of pets as part of the family is hard to get at in antiquity, but I think they were [family] here." […]
The animals appear to have been laid gently in well-prepared pits. Many were covered with textiles or pieces of pottery, "which formed a kind of sarcophagus," Osypinska says. More than 90% were cats, many wearing iron collars or necklaces threaded with glass and shells. One feline was placed on the wing of a large bird. […]
At Berenice, most of the animals appear to have died from injury or disease. Some cats have fractured legs or other breaks that may have been caused by falls or from being kicked by a horse. Others died young, possibly from infectious diseases that spread rapidly in the cramped city.
The dogs, which make up only about 5% of the burials (the rest are monkeys), tended to be older when they died. Many had lost most of their teeth or suffered periodontal disease and joint degeneration.
"We have individuals who have very limited mobility," Osypinska says. Yet many lived long lives and their injuries healed. "Such animals had to be fed to survive," she says, "sometimes with special foods in the case of the almost-toothless animals."
The fact that humans took such good care of the animals, especially in a rough-and-tumble region where almost all resources had to be imported-and that they took such care in burying them, just as many modern owners do-suggests the people of Berenice had a strong emotional bond with their cats and dogs, the team concluded last month in World Archaeology. "They weren't doing it for the gods or for any utilitarian benefit," Osypinska says. Instead, she argues that the relationship between people and their pets was "surprisingly close" to the one we see today.
Ikram is convinced. "This is a cemetery," she says. "And it sheds an interesting light on the inhabitants of Berenice and their relationships with their animals."
