Heard this on the way home. How sweet. You know, for something so awful and creepy:
Embrace lasted for 5,000 years
Skeletons show death's tender side
By Ariel David
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME -- Archaeologists have unearthed two Neolithic-era skeletons locked in a tender embrace that were buried outside Mantua -- just 25 miles south of Verona, where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of "Romeo and Juliet."
Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.
"As far as we know, it's unique," Menotti said Wednesday. "Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging."
The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building near Mantua. 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.
Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome's National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum, said double prehistoric burials are rare -- especially in such a pose.
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 in thousands of years, he said.
The 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."
The news story I heard also mentioned that it’s possible he was killed first and, so’s they could be together for all eternity, she was then sacrificed and buried with him. You know, to keep him company. How sweet. And ghastly. [Kind of like being married to me prolly is.]
Apparently, police, having still not ruled out foul play, are interested in questioning a Mister William Shakespeare, aka, Willy the Shake, in connection with the case.
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