Italians Find Ancient Skeletons Buried in Eternal Embrace

Rome, they died young and, by the looks of it, in love. Two 5,000-year old skeletons found locked in an embrace near the city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed ale "Romeo and Juliet," have sparked theories that the remains of a far more ancient love story have been found. Archaeologists unearthed the skeletons dating back to the late neolithic period outside Manta, 25 miles south of Verona, the city of Shakespeare's story of doomed for love.

Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, because their teeth were found intact, said Elan Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig. "As far as we know, it's unique," Menotti said by telephone from Milan. "Double burials from the Neolithic are are unheard of, and these are even hugging." Archaeologists digging in the region have found some 30 burials sites, all single, as well as the remains of prosperous villages filled with artifacts made from horns.

Although the Mantua pair strike an unusual and touching pose, archaeologists have found other prehistoric burials in which the dead hold hands or have other contact, said Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome's national Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum. Bondioli, who was not involved in the Mantua dig, said the find has "more of an emotional than a scientific value." But it does highlight how the relationship people have with each other and with death has not changed much from the period in which humanity first settled in villages, learning from to farm the land and tame animals, he said.

"The Neolithic is a very formative period for our society," he said. "It was when the roots of our religious sentiment were formed." Menotti said the burial was "a ritual, but we have to find of what it means." Experts might never determine the exact nature of the pair's relationship, but Menotti said she had little doubt it was born of a deep sentiment.

Sources:
The News Observer