Together for eternity: The skeletons of Roman lovers buried together holding hands
- Loved-up couple died more than 1,500 years ago
- Archeologists moved by discovery
The skeletons of a pair of lovers buried holding hands in a final embrace has been unearthed by workers renovating a palace in Italy.
The pair are believed to have been buried together 1,500 years ago in a joint tomb inside the palace walls in Modena, indicating some sort of nobility towards the dying days of the Roman empire.
Observers say the woman seems to be looking lovingly at what scientists believe is her partner.
Together: The skeletons of a pair of lovers buried holding hands in a final embrace has been unearthed by workers renovating a palace in Modena, Italy. The woman's head is looking lovingly towards her partner
'It is a very touching scene and very rare,' said one.
The discovery was made during construction work. It is believed the pair were buried at the same time between the 5th and 6th Century A.D.
Archeologist Donato Labate, the director of the excavation, told Discovery News: 'We believe that they were originally buried with their faces staring into each other.The position of the man's vertebrae suggests that his head rolled after death.
'The two couples are separated in time by five millennia, and both evoke an uplifting tenderness. I have been involved in many digs, but I've never felt so moved.'
The archeological dig revealed three layers of scientific interest. The couple were found on the middle layer among a total of 11 burials at a depth of about 10 feet.
Archeologists believe the couple were not particularly rich due to the simple nature of the tombs they were buried in and think they may have lived on a farm.
It is thought the man's head would have been looking at the woman's when they were buried.
But the area they were buried in was subject to several floods from the river Tiepido which may have caused the man's skull to roll away from the female.
The poorly preserved skeletons will now be studied by Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist at the University of Bologna.
He will attempt to establish the couple's age, relationship and cause of death.
Kristina Killgrove, a biological anthropologist at the University of North Carolina, told Discovery News that the positioning of the skeletons suggest they were a couple.
She said: 'In antiquity, it is not surprising to learn of spouses or members of a family dying at the same time: whenever epidemics such as the Black Plague ravaged Europe, one member of the family would often die while the family was trying to bury another member.
'Whoever buried these people likely felt that communicating their relationship was just as important in death as it was in life.'
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