The Eternal Embrace

[~kiyah~ 14]

ROME (Reuters) - 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.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070206/sc_nm/italy_embrace_dc

~Kiyah~

Edited February 7, 2007 by Kiya

[Henia 11]

ROME (Reuters) - 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.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070206/sc_nm/italy_embrace_dc

~Kiyah~

awwww I wish I would be buried like this too

[Nasturtium 500]

OOO! There is going to be such bias in this sexing! I saw the full-body shots and the best indicators are totally crushed.. unless they can get something better under the pedasteld remains.

[amal 4]

I wonder if it could have been landslide or something while the couple was sleeping...or like in the movie titanic, they knew they were going to die so they held each other until the end.. ok .. enough of that...

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

I wonder if it could have been landslide or something while the couple was sleeping...or like in the movie titanic, they knew they were going to die so they held each other until the end.. ok .. enough of that...

they were caught up in a natural disaster that long ago. and just now fema arrived to help........

[amal 4]

omg CHARLES!! hillarious!! GO TO YOUR ROOM!

[Nasturtium 500]

Actually I thought it was an intentional burial, which is not actually a nice or romantic thing

[Henia 11]

Actually I thought it was an intentional burial, which is not actually a nice or romantic thing

Would you care to explain that? I am curious...as this is your profession *I think*...

[Nasturtium 500]

As in either one or both were killed to make the burial.

ETA: I mean there is no way to tell... but it's so unusual and ritualistic and the chances of 2 people dying at the same time are really really low... even today that would involve an accident or a murder (or suicide)

Edited February 9, 2007 by julianna

[chris4336 3]

OOO! There is going to be such bias in this sexing! I saw the full-body shots and the best indicators are totally crushed.. unless they can get something better under the pedasteld remains.

Oh so you think there is no way to be sure its a man and a woman? Thats very interesting...

[Nasturtium 500]

Oh so you think there is no way to be sure its a man and a woman? Thats very interesting...

There is never a way to be 100% sure. A good sex estimate involves over 14 different measurements, but the number one good indicator is the pelvis. Just looking at those remains you can see how they are fractured from settling of the ground, but in decent condition... but.. I can see some measurements will not actually be possible already, and there is always a bias.

Women tend to sex more things as female, males tend to bias for males. There is also individual bias, everyone tends to determine more of one than the other Also, dependant on their age (also a pelvic thing (combined with local and temporal tooth wear stats) so I think they must have a decent piece of the pelvis if they were talking about age and sex? Or maybe they meant age as in how long ago they were burried?) they may not really display all the male/female differentiation. They will probably run them against other skeletons in that area to figure out if they fit a male or female pattern as well... because it's not just about overall size A tall woman, say one of those tall, blonde Swedish girls , could fit everything about a male skeleton in say, the USA but maybe be within range for a female at genetic origin.

[~kiyah~ 14]

I wonder if it could have been landslide or something while the couple was sleeping...or like in the movie titanic, they knew they were going to die so they held each other until the end.. ok .. enough of that...

they were caught up in a natural disaster that long ago. and just now fema arrived to help........

LOL!

~Kiyah~

[Mrs. Forgetful 2]

How they are, looks the exact way we sleep sometimes.

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

As in either one or both were killed to make the burial.

ETA: I mean there is no way to tell... but it's so unusual and ritualistic and the chances of 2 people dying at the same time are really really low... even today that would involve an accident or a murder (or suicide)

I saw some other reports that mention arrow points being found in the skeletons:

An initial examination of the couple - dubbed the Lovers of Valdaro - revealed that the man (on the left in the picture) has an arrow in his spinal column while the woman has an arrow head in her side.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/arti...in_page_id=1770

Not sure how reliable this report is, but it also quotes the lead archaeologist on the site as saying:

It's possible that the man died first and then the woman was killed in sacrifice to accompany his soul.

Anyway, it's a very interesting find, to say the least.

-MK

Edited February 9, 2007 by wife_of_mahmoud

[Nasturtium 500]

I saw some other reports that mention arrow points being found in the skeletons:

Not sure how reliable this report is, but it also quotes the lead archaeologist on the site as saying:

Anyway, it's a very interesting find, to say the least.

-MK

Unless the arrows were actually embedded in the bone (and thus indicating the person was shot and lived through it and then died later... much later...), then you can't say they actually were involved in the death in any way. Things found "inside" a skeleton (including soil ) often come from being laid on top of a body.. and there is no way to tell teh difference.