A dog’s head in a house pit at the early iron age site of Verucchio. Butchery waste or ritual sacrifice?

The settlement of Verucchio stands on a cliff in the Apennines, at 330 m a.s.l, characterized by an irregular plateau (Pian del Monte) surrounded by four hills not far from the Marecchia river. This area was occupied during the transition between the Late Bronze and the beginning of the Iron Age. During the 9th century BC, the protohistoric village became a central place for the nearby villages till the 7th century BC. After this period the village seems to have been scarcely populated. The site was again inhabited from the end of the 5th century, as testified by several buildings, including the famous House 4. The house is a rectangular-shaped building (20 x 18.5 m) and it is oriented along a NNE/SSW axis, divided into three rooms aligned on the eastern side (from north rooms A, B and C). During the recent archaeological excavations, carried out by the University of Pavia between 2012 and 2017, an oval ditch was recovered inside room C of the House 4 below the sub-foundations. The ditch develops along a NNE-SSW axis and contained fragments of Etrusco-Padano pottery (4th century BC), and abundant faunal remains including an upside-down dog skull. Excavations were carried out by the University of Pavia in 2011 and allowed to investigate three chronological phases of the inhabited area (D IX-VIII c. BC, C VII -V c. BC and B IV-III c. BC). The archaeozoological analysis, still underway, involved a total amount of about 2700 remains. An interesting aspect of phase B is the presence of a young dog skull with deciduous dentition deposited in the house with other skeletal elements of domestic animals which could have several symbolic significances.