Ancient Assyrians buried their dead with turtles

Ancient Assyrians sent their dead to the afterlife with fearsome companions: turtles. Excavations of a burial pit in southeastern Turkey revealed skeletons of a woman and a child, plus 21 turtles.

The burial is part of an Assyrian site that dates to between 700 and 300 B.C. The turtle bonanza included shells from one spur-thighed tortoise and three Middle Eastern terrapins, plus bones from 17 Euphrates soft-shelled turtles. Butchering marks on the R. euphraticus bones indicate that the turtles may have been eaten in a funerary feast.

Back then, turtles were a regular menu item in many parts of Mesopotamia. Turtle bones also were thought to ward off evil. The abundance of R. euphraticus turtles, a notoriously aggressive species, in this burial pit suggests the deceased had high social status.

To ancient Assyrians, these ferocious reptiles probably represented eternal life and served as psychopomps — mythical guides to the afterlife.

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