Animal Tombs: A 4,000 Year Old Monkey Discovered
Throughout history, animal graves have alternated in numerous civilizations, which shows us the respect and interest that ancient populations showed towards animals, even domestic ones. The latest discovery of this genus is quite surprising, because it is a 4,000-year-old macaque, buried in Iran.
Animal graves
For millennia, our species has felt the need to perform rites associated with death, probably to allow us to more easily meet the end of our life.
Funeral rites such as burials are a common phenomenon in all human cultures; moreover, there are numerous civilizations that practice the burying of animals, as did the ancient Egyptians. It should not surprise us, therefore, to come across animal graves like the one we deal with in this article.
The discovery of these animal graves took place in the archaeological site of Shahr-i Sokhta, known as the “Burnt City”. This ancient deposit dates back to the Bronze Age and is located in present-day Iran. Although he has already reserved a large number of surprises in the world of archeology, few expected to find graves of such unusual animals as a rhesus macaque ( Macaca mulatta ).
In particular, the animal graves of this city generally contain goats or dogs; Consequently, the discovery of a young macaque, who died at the age of five, cannot avoid attracting our attention.
The most mysterious aspect consists in the fact that the funeral practices adopted are very similar to those that were used in this same city to bury human children. The animal, in fact, had been buried together with an amphora, in a simple tomb.
Curiously, the animal’s femur was observed to have dystrophic calcification, a disease likely due to the poor conditions of its life in captivity. In addition, these animals live in southern Asia and, consequently, in order to serve as pets of a person of high rank they had to necessarily be imported.
The rhesus macaques
Rhesus macaques are very curious animals. These animals, in fact, one of which appeared in this thousand-year-old tomb, are Old World primates that lived in various countries of southern Asia, such as China and India.
These macaques weigh approximately five kilograms and reach a height of around 60 centimeters. They have a fur whose shades range from gray to brown and can live more than 25 years in captivity.
These animals have established numerous relationships with our species. Not only are they common in numerous cities in northern India, but the Rh factor of our blood group gets its name from these animals, in which it was first identified.
A curious aspect concerning this species is the fact that most of the studies on the natural behavior of its specimens have not been conducted within their habitat.
They are in fact originally from Asia; nevertheless, there is a population of rhesus macaques on an island of Puerto Rico, present for research purposes. Who would have thought that animal graves could tell such curious stories?
