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Skeleton Couple Locked in Embrace for 5,000 Years

February 7, 2007 by Sam Sloan   || Category: Science News

ROME, Italy (FoxNews) — It could be humanity’s oldest story of doomed love.

Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.

Buried between 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric lovers are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.

“As far as we know, it’s unique,” Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. “Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging.”

The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.

Experts now will study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site’s age and how old the two were when they died, she said.

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Comments

11 Responses to “Skeleton Couple Locked in Embrace for 5,000 Years”

  1. Anthropology.net on February 8th, 2007 12:08 am

    Mantua, Italy’s Neolithic lovers locked in eternal embrace…

    Just in time for Valentine’s Day, which is a week away, is news of a rather romantic archaeological find, two skeletons from the Neolithic period embracing one another. They were found by archaeologists digging out around Mantua, Italy. That’s about …

  2. what's going on out there?? on February 8th, 2007 7:58 pm

    5000 year-old embrace…

    Skeleton Couple Locked in Embrace for 5,000 Years

    Posted by Sam on Wednesday, 7 Feb 2007

    ROME,……

  3. Tom S on February 10th, 2007 9:56 pm

    Are they a couple?
    Male and Female?
    parent and child?

  4. Linda D on February 12th, 2007 9:16 am

    How refreshing to learn that even those who lived 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, knew what Love was.

    Happy Valentines!

  5. mychie on February 12th, 2007 6:30 pm

    truly amazing!
    i would want to die with the one i love!

  6. Leroy on February 12th, 2007 6:30 pm

    When I saw it I also felt the the strength of that love even thousands of years had pass! Its like me and my only love! nothing can separate us!

  7. Ben on July 11th, 2007 6:49 pm

    Maybe they died strangling each other?

  8. Dave on July 12th, 2007 12:28 am

    That’s an awesome find but not surprising. Love is a basic human emotion so it doesn’t surprise me that a couple would want to be buried together even 5000 years ago.

  9. Boracay on September 12th, 2008 10:35 pm

    True Love really exists. It justifies the phrase “..’til DEATH do as part”

  10. Simon on November 1st, 2008 3:51 pm

    id rather die being loved, then live without it. beautiful testament to the human capacity for kindness.

  11. martha humble on July 31st, 2009 6:33 am

    this is awesome!!! only so lucky to have died together!!! one not have to know life without the other one!!! very very cool. just learned of this story because of a guy’s tattoo!! he was so moved that he tattooed to his leg!! its true!!

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