On February 11, 2007, right before Valentine’s Day, a team of archaelogists uncovered a Neolithic burial site in the village of Valdaro, Italy, containing two skeletons who have been locked in an eternal embrace for the past 6,000 years. Could they be the real Romeo and Juliet?
The couple are a male and female who were no older than 20 years old when they died and were approximately 5’2″ (157 cm) in height. The male skeleton was found with a flint arrowhead near his neck, while the female had a long flint blade along the thigh and two flint knives under the pelvis. However, osteological examination found no evidence of violent death, so the most likely explanation is the flint tools were buried along with the pair as burial objects.
The embracing position of the bodies is fascinating, to say the least. Since they were found in a necropolis, scientists believe they did not die that way by accident. Rather, it is thought that they were positioned that way.
What is more, during the Neolithic period, double burials were very uncommon which makes their position even more unique. Their grave was found among 30 other sites, but all of those only contained single burials. In fact, the Valdaro Lovers are the only case of a double burial in Northern Italy. It is by no surprise, then, that when they were found, the media published tons of photos of them, causing great excitement worldwide.
“It’s rare for two young people to die at the same time, and that makes us want to know why and who they were, but it will be very difficult to find out,” Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome’s National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum, said in an interview.
Since the skeletons were found only ten years ago, it is indeed very challenging to define anything about them so quickly, according to archaeologist Elena Maria Menotti, who led the excavation. It is a long process where each bone will have to be studied thoroughly.
One thing is sure though: it’s very unusual for two young people to have died at the same time and be buried this way. This has led many to speculate the Romeo and Juliet theory – two star-crossed lovers dying in each other’s arms.
That said, there seems to be some support for the theory, albeit you might consider it to be a bit far-fetched: the city of Mantua, near which the burial site was discovered, is the very city where Romeo is sent after he kills Tybalt in a swordfight in Shakespear’s iconic play. Romeo dreams he dies and is revived by Juliet’s kiss, which scares him and makes him leave his exile and return to Verona where he is informed Juliet is now dead, and well, you know the rest of the story.
Sources: 1, 2, 3