The Lovers of Valdaro

I am getting sentimental today. So, let me share to you, one of my most favorite historical evidence of  the wedding vow, "Till Death Do Us Part":

Believed to be no older than twenty years of age when death occurred.
Over 5,000 years old.
Locked in an eternal embrace.

Tragically, their story is unknown.
Ironically, they were found in the city of Mantova. In Italy.
The city Shakespeare chose to set the story of Romeo & Juliet.

Per Wikipedia:

The so-called Lovers of Valdaro, also dubbed as the "Valdaro Lovers," is a pair of human skeletons locked in an eternal embrace discovered by archaeologists at a Neolithic tomb in S.Giorgio near Mantova, Italy, in 2007.

Archaeologist Elena Maria Menotti led the excavation. Scientists believe that the pair is a man and woman no older than 20 years old and approximately 5'2" in height. They were removed from the ground intact and sent to Musei Civici in Como where they are undergoing tests.

I found this article in www.archaelogy.org, relating to these remains:

Eternal Embrace by Jason Urbanus

A rare double burial in Italy evokes romantic images and a line or two from Romeo and Juliet.

Archaeologists were suddenly quoting lines from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Digging in the Italian village of Valdaro--near the city of Mantua, a setting for the famous Elizabethan tragedy--they uncovered a startling double burial. Dubbed the "Lovers of Valdaro" by the media, the pair were huddled close together, face to face, their arms and legs entwined, seemingly in an eternal embrace.

The burial, which dates to the Neolithic period (5000-4000 B.C.), caused an immediate stir among its discoverers. "I am so thrilled at this find," says archaeologist Elena Maria Menotti, who led the excavation. "I have been involved in lots of digs all over Italy, but nothing has excited me as much as this. I've never been so moved, because this is the discovery of something special."

Although it is not the only Neolithic burial to contain more than one person, double burials are rare, and the pose and the positioning of this couple are unique. After an initial examination of the bones, experts determined that the man and woman were no more than 20 years old, and both around 5 feet, 2 inches tall.

Answering more detailed questions about the pair will be difficult. Excavating any burial is a time-consuming undertaking, moreover, normal excavation of a burial entails documenting and removing each bone for study. In the case of the "lovers," this would have destroyed their unique, intertwined position. In the end, Menotti decided that the two would not be separated, but removed and preserved intact. The block of earth in which they rested was lifted out of the ground with large belts, placed in a yellow wooden box, and sent to  an archaeological laboratory at the Musei Civici in Como.

At the lab, the remains have been undergoing several forms of analysis--DNA testing, a 3-D laser scan, and X rays--from which archaeologists hope to learn more about the relationship between the two individuals, their cause of death, and more details about how they lived. While the team awaited results of of the skeletons.

No evidence of a Neolithic settlement has been found in Valdaro, but in antiquity the area was crisscrossed by small waterways and the nearby River Po, making it geographically ideal for hunting, fishing, and agriculture. Neolithic Valdaro would have been a very developed community, with easy access to important trade routes and close ties to neighboring populations.

As for the "lovers" themselves, archaeologists may not be able to determine their exact relationship or cause of death, but their discovery is one of the most remarkable finds in Neolithic archaeology. Science aside, for some they will remain forever embracing, a symbol of eternal love that echoes the doomed Shakespearean couple.