Skeletons can be scary. They can be humorous costumes on Halloween. They can be medical teaching tools. Rarely do they evoke enduring love. That makes the 5,000-year-old skeletons recently unearthed by archeologists in Italy something more than your usual pile of bones.
The two skeletons were found facing each other and locked in an embrace. Their legs are curled beneath them. The left arm of one skeleton is clearly grasping the back of the other. One appears to have died stroking the chin of his or her companion. Their skulls are just inches apart.
Who were they? How did they die? Why were they buried in this manner? Archeologists believe they are the bones of a man and a woman. They also think the two died young because they still had all their teeth. Skeletons have previously been discovered touching each other. Some have been found holding hands. But this evocative pose is something not seen before, said Elena Menotti, the archeologist who led the dig.
The Tribune's Tempo section asked readers to come up with their own plot lines and, last week, printed several. They told sad tales: of a forbidden relationship, of a cloud of volcanic poisonous gas, of death from a mudslide, of consumptive illness, of a blizzard. But all the stories were about love--enduring love, forever love, "I will never let you go" love.
That these ancient bones were found outside Mantua just 25 miles south of Verona, where William Shakespeare set "Romeo and Juliet," only adds to their allure.
Scientists will study the skeletons and the flint tools found with them. All of today's technology and techniques will be brought to bear. But the mystery of who and why and how will never be wholly solved. An embrace has now been publicly revealed, but the reasons for its tenderness in death will always remain private.
Seen from the vantage point of the 21st Century, these Neolithic lovers--you can't see this image and believe they were anything but lovers--reassure us that humanity has not changed so much over the millenniums. Love made the world go round at the dawn of history. It still does.