Eternal embrace? Couple still hugging 5,000 years on!

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Dark Knight

Dark Knight

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reuters120.gif




Call it the eternal embrace.

Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other.

"It's an extraordinary case," said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova.

"There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging."

Menotti said she believed the two, almost certainly a man and a woman although that needs to be confirmed, died young because their teeth were mostly intact and not worn down.

"I must say that when we discovered it, we all became very excited. I've been doing this job for 25 years. I've done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites," she told Reuters.

"But I've never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special."

A laboratory will now try to determine the couple's age at the time of death and how long they had been buried.

Picture at link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070206/sc_nm/italy_embrace_dc;_ylt=Aj5QRfLYwXwK64oXhIxbI7ms0NUE



 
IdahoMom said:
Awww, that's sweet. And sad in a way.
Click to expand...
It is sweet but sad, maybe it was a double suicide or why else would they have died at the same time or hugging each other.
 
Shazza said:
It is sweet but sad, maybe it was a double suicide or why else would they have died at the same time or hugging each other.
Click to expand...
When I read this story, I thought of the family that was murdered by the gang- where the Mom was found clutching her babies. :(
 
Dark Knight said:
reuters120.gif




Call it the eternal embrace.

Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a couple buried 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, hugging each other.

"It's an extraordinary case," said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova.

"There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging."

Menotti said she believed the two, almost certainly a man and a woman although that needs to be confirmed, died young because their teeth were mostly intact and not worn down.

"I must say that when we discovered it, we all became very excited. I've been doing this job for 25 years. I've done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites," she told Reuters.

"But I've never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special."

A laboratory will now try to determine the couple's age at the time of death and how long they had been buried.

Picture at link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070206/sc_nm/italy_embrace_dc;_ylt=Aj5QRfLYwXwK64oXhIxbI7ms0NUE
Click to expand...

Where do you find this stuff??? Not sure I want to click on the picture link, lol!

5000 to 6000 years ago - I am amazed that the bones were still intact - wouldn't they be nothing after all this time????
 
poco said:
Where do you find this stuff??? Not sure I want to click on the picture link, lol!

5000 to 6000 years ago - I am amazed that the bones were still intact - wouldn't they be nothing after all this time????
Click to expand...
Poco-
The picture is fine. :)

Maybe they were buried by volcano ash? It seems to me I read somewhere that volcanic ash is a good preservative. The bones DO look to be remarkably intact.
 
IdahoMom said:
When I read this story, I thought of the family that was murdered by the gang- where the Mom was found clutching her babies. :(
Click to expand...
I havent heard about that one, but it just gives me the shivers thinking about it, how very sad. Did they get the gang that did it.
 
They called it a double burial. I assume they were posed in that position when buried. Even if they died seperately.
 
This is really cool. It reminds me of the couple found back in the 70s at the Iron Age site of Hasanlu in NW Iran (excavated by the University of Pennsylvania). In their case, the couple had hidden in a storage bin while their city was under siege. They died there in an embrace.

This is the "Hasanlu Lovers":
http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0702/images/timehansanlu.gif

What is special about this new couple is their antiquity -- the European Neolithic. It is lovely to be reminded of the existence of lovers in prehistory. Life wasn't all just about daily survival.

Bones are fragile but they will preserve well under a number of different condition -- arid, peat bogs, frozen, volcanic ash, etc.
 
I saw this on foxnews.com and this is the part that got my attention....

ROME — 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....snip

It made me wonder if maybe they were like Bill's infamous couple. Of course I realize that is probably not the case, but it did make me think it for a few seconds.
 
This is a fascinating discovery that teaches important details about love and marriage in ancient times.

If you look very closely at the photo, you can tell that they are not merely hugging, but actually have their hands at each other's throats.

Just kidding. I think this is so sweet!
 
angelmom said:
If you look very closely at the photo, you can tell that they are not merely hugging, but actually have their hands at each other's throats.
Click to expand...

Lol! That would be a VERY realistic representation of love and marriage! :D
 
I don't have a link so don't shoot me but I heard on the news this morning that possibly the male died and the female was sacrificed so that she would go with him. It's not quite as romantic but one of the many possibilities.
 
lizzybeth said:
I don't have a link so don't shoot me but I heard on the news this morning that possibly the male died and the female was sacrificed so that she would go with him. It's not quite as romantic but one of the many possibilities.
Click to expand...

Maybe it isn't romantic, but isn't it fair? After all, heterosexual marriage is usually the opposite.
 
Dark Knight said:
In this picture of the entire bodies, I find their leg positions to be interesting:

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070207/481/man10102071501&g=events/sc/020607skeletonshug;_ylt=Ambp0ksb17fwDCfcAi3sG6txieAA
Click to expand...

While burial practices vary from culture to culture and time period to time period, the fetal position was very common in the Neolithic period (although I don't know if that was specifically the case in Neolithic Italy). What I find interesting is that they chose to put them in the fetal position facing each other, rather than "spooning" as that seems the more natural for placing two people together with their knee bent.

Thanks for directing us to that more complete photo, DK.
 
Cypros said:
While burial practices vary from culture to culture and time period to time period, the fetal position was very common in the Neolithic period (although I don't know if that was specifically the case in Neolithic Italy). What I find interesting is that they chose to put them in the fetal position facing each other, rather than "spooning" as that seems the more natural for placing two people together with their knee bent.

Thanks for directing us to that more complete photo, DK.
Click to expand...
Exactly, their knees are keeping them apart, rather than together.

You're welcome for the pic. :)
 
I was waiting for someone to mention spooning.

Interesting thread.

That pic you posted Cypros is really sad...the way the hand is up near the face..
 
geez, i just love how the media has to put a spin on everything.."two lovers locked into an eternal embrace"... romeo and juliet"... LOL! i mean, how do we know this wasn't a brother & sister?? not that they couldn't be brother & sister AND lovers,, but still. the fact is we don't know. they could have been neighbors, or strangers... or they could have been placed that way on purpose after death. perhaps their families wanted them to be together but they died too soon, so they placed them that way in hopes that they would be together in the afterlife.
as for the cause of death, my guesses are... famine, disease, hypothermia, volcano (do they have evidence that one may have erupted in the form of ash residue?... although judging by pompeii, usually they would be caught in a pose of agony and discomfort- trying to shield their mouths).
another question... are there any other significant archeological sites nearby? i wonder if they might have gotten lost, and died from exposure or hunger. another possibility.. they were banned from the tribe/town... considered possessed or perhaps there was something else wrong with them- or they DID something wrong-- that caused them to be outcast. at any rate.. it certainly is an amazing find, and fascinating to speculate about!
 
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