Iron Age people were buried with their pets

Dog and horse skeletons are dug up next to human bones

- Stephen Beech

IRON Age Europeans were buried with their animals - including dogs, horses, pigs and cows, research shows.

Of the 161 people buried at Seminario Vescovile, an archaeological site at Verona in what is now northern Italy, 16 were buried with animals or animal parts.

The reasons remain a mystery, but scientists believe it might indicate an "enduring companion relationship" between the humans and animals, or religious sacrificial practices during the Late Iron Age - around 2,200 years ago.

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