Valentine 2007: Prehistoric Romeo and Juliet found in Italy
Vipas @ Y!Mail
Archaeologists in Italy have found the remains of a couple believed to have been enterred 6,000 years ago, locked in a final embrace.
The well-preserved skeletons were discovered facing each other, their arms entwined, during excavation work in an industrial zone of the northern city of Mantua.
"We found these two individuals entwined in a neolithic burial chamber," the lead archeologist Elena Menotti told AFP.
"We believe them to be a man and a woman, DNA tests should be able to clear that up in a few months. From first observations, they were young because their dentition is complete and shows little signs of wear," she said.
"Everybody obviously wants to know why they were buried in an embrace like that. I think that it's a sign of a great love which has transcended time.
"They obviously had strong feelings for each other," she said.
Menotti said the find was unlikely to be an example of widow sacrifice, a practice whereby women were sometimes buried along with the remains of their naturally-deceased husband.
"In such 'widow sacrifices' the women is buried alongside her husband and not in his arms."
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Vipas
A pair of human skeletons lie entwined at an Neolithic archaeological
dig site near Mantova, Italy, in a photo released February 6, 2007. In
a Valentines Day gift to the country, scientists said they are
determined to jointly remove and preserve the remains of the couple
buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, their arms still wrapped around each
other in an enduring embrace.
This handout picture given by the Italian cultural ministry shows a
pair of human skeletons embracing at a Neolithic tomb in Valdaro-
S.Giorgio near Mantova. Archeologists who found the couple 06 February
say the couple could have been buried some 6000 years ago.(AFP/HO)
This photo provided by the Archaeological Society SAP in Mantua,
northern Italy, on Wednesday, Feb, 7, 2007 shows a pair of human
skeletons found Monday Feb. 6 at a construction site outside Mantua.
Archaeologists unearthed the skeletons, believed to be a man and a
woman, from the Neolithic period, buried between 5000 to 6000 years
ago. It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. (AP Photo/
Archaeological Society SAP, ho)
A pair of human skeletons lie in an eternal embrace at an Neolithic
archaeological dig site near Mantova, Italy, in this photo released
February 6, 2007. Archaeologists in northern Italy believe the couple
was buried 5,000-6,000 years ago, their arms still wrapped around each
other in a hug that has lasted millennia. REUTERS/Enrico Pajello/
Handout (ITALY). EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR
ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS.
Vipas
Scientists to save 5,000-year-old embrace
By Phil Stewart
Mon Feb 12, 9:53 AM ET
Italy won't split up its Stone Age "lovers."
In a Valentine's Day gift to the country, scientists said they are
determined to remove and preserve together the remains of a couple
buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, their arms still wrapped around each
other in an enduring embrace.
Instead of removing the bones one-by-one for reassembly later,
archaeologists plan to scoop up the entire section of earth where the
couple was buried, they told Reuters.
The plot will then be transported for study before being put on
display in an Italian museum, thereby preserving the world's longest
known hug for posterity.
"We want to keep can them just as they have been all this time --
together," archaeologist Elena Menotti, who announced the discovery a
week ago, told Reuters.
Their removal will be a relief for archaeologists who had to hire
extra security to guard the rural site outside the northern city of
Mantova after the discovery made world headlines.
STAR-CROSSED LOVERS?
More importantly, it will give scientists a chance to figure out what
was has become one of Italian archaeology's greatest mysteries: the
first known Neolithic couple to be buried together, hugging.
Was it a sudden death? A ritual sacrifice? Or maybe they were
prehistoric, star-crossed lovers who took their own lives.
That is a crowd-pleasing theory in these parts, since Shakespeare's
Romeo and Juliet was set in nearby Verona.
But scientists acknowledge they still know precious little about the
now-famous Stone Age couple, whose embrace has become a subject of
world newspaper headlines and chat shows.
Italians dubbed them the "Lovers of Valdaro" after the Mantova suburb
of farmland and factories. But even their gender is a open question
until scientists confirm the theory that they were a man and a woman.
Archaeologists seem certain the couple died young, since their teeth
are intact and that they died during the Stone Age because of an
arrowhead and tools found with the remains.
But new evidence indicates the couple were not alone and that the
remains may have left been near a Stone Age settlement.
A CULT? DEATH GRIP?
Archaeologists on site showed Reuters photographs of another skeleton
found nearby, suggesting the couple were in some sort of prehistoric
burial ground.
While the single body was buried East-West, possibly following the
daily path of the sun across the sky, the Stone Age couple were buried
"the wrong way."
"They were buried North-South, and we don't know why," said
archaeologist Daniela Castagna, standing over the grave site.
John Robb, lecturer at Cambridge University and an expert in Neolithic
Italian remains, says the trouble with the Stone Age couple is the
singularity of the find -- which makes it difficult to explain using
known historic data.
He said Neolithic burials are almost always single burials.
"There are a couple of mass burials. There are couple of examples of
heads being found under houses. And then, about one burial in every 20
or 30 sites is completely unique," he said.
"And these are probably things that have strange ritual circumstances
of one kind or another."
But until scientists get a closer look at the bones, all anyone has
are loose theories.
The discovery generated Internet conspiracy theories with some taking
a darker interpretation of the hugging skeletons.
One reader on AOL, said it was absurd to assume "this couple is in
eternal bliss."
"Maybe it is eternal hatred that had them locked together in a death
grip," wrote another reader.
Other people have called for the couple to be left alone -- something
that Italian archaeologists say would leave the remains vulnerable to
looters, vandals and even bad weather.
There is also a practical reason, the owner of the land hopes to soon
build warehouses on it.
"We say rest in peace -- unless you're dead long enough to be
interesting," wrote another reader, Jim Noonan.