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."
"As far as we know, it‘s unique," Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. "Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging."
Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site‘s age and how old the two were when they died, she 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 and learning to farm and tame animals, he said.
The two bodies, which cuddle closely while facing each other on their sides, were probably buried at the same time, possibly an indication of sudden and tragic death, Bondioli said.
He said DNA testing could determine whether the two were related, "but that still leaves other hypotheses; the ‘Romeo and Juliet‘ possibility is just one of many."
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By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press
