Prehistoric Lovers Discovered in 5,000-Year-Old Embrace

Two Neolithic-period skeletons were just discovered near Verona, Italy, locked in a tender embrace that one might expect from star-crossed lovers Romeo and Juliet. The man and woman were thought to have been buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago.

Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig, said that the couple died young, because their teeth are still intact. "As far as we know, it's unique," Menotti said. "Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging."

The couple's burial site was discovered during construction work for a factory building. Archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, near the embracing couple. The couple's remains and other artifacts will now be studied by experts to determine the age of the burial site and how old the man and woman were when they died.

Shakespeare's famous play Romeo and Juliet was set in Verona and gives us some idea of the cultural mores of that time. This ancient burial site may also give us some clues about how Neolithic-period peoples lived. Facing each other while laying on their sides, the overall impression of the man and woman is that of tenderness and closeness, as if they are part of one of humanity's oldest stories of tragic and doomed love.

Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome's National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum says that the burial site has "more of an emotional than a scientific value." Bondioli observed that the couple's embrace "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 to farm the land and tame animals. The Neolithic is a very formative period for our society," he said. "It was when the roots of our religious sentiment were formed."

The fact that the two bodies were buried together may point to a sudden and tragic death. The bodies of the Neolithic man and woman were found cuddled next to each other and facing each other, like lovers.