Archaeologists find prehistoric Romeo and Juliet

 

Archaeologists find prehistoric Romeo and Juliet

 

 

The pair of human skeletons locked in a tender embrace were found at a construction

site near Verona in northern Italy.
Photo: AP

 

February 8, 2007 - 10:27AM

 

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 40 kilometres south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.

 

Buried between 5000 and 6000 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, Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig, said.

 

"As far as we know, it's unique," Menotti said. "Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging."

The burial site was located on Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua.

 

Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife.

Experts will now study the artefacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site's age and how old the two were when they died, she said.

AP