5953 Valentine Special

Til Death Us Do Part - Seemingly Not!!!

This handout picture received on 2 February shows a pair of 6,000-year-old skeletons found by Italian archaeologists in a dying embrace. The couple will not be separated, team leader Elena Menotti has told AFP.

The skeletons of two embracing lovers have been discovered in an Italian city featured in Romeo And Juliet. The archaeologist in charge of the excavation says the nature of the find - two adults hugging each other - is "unique". The couple have already been dubbed "the lovers of Valdano", a reference to the small town near Mantua where they were discovered this week.

Early tests suggest the pair were relatively young when they died and that they may have been lying in their joint grave for more than 5,000 years.

The man, on the left, appears to have an arrow in his spinal column, while the woman has an arrow head in her side.

In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet, the hero is sent to Mantua after killing Tybalt Capulet in a swordfight, returning to Verona after hearing that Juliet has died.

However, archaeologists believe the story behind the Lovers of Valdano may be less romantic than that of Romeo and Juliet.

Elena Menotti, who is leading the dig at Valdano, said: "I am so excited about this discovery. We have never found a man and a woman embraced before and this is a unique find.

"We have found plenty of women embracing children but never a couple, much less a couple hugging - and they really are hugging.

"It's possible that the man died first and then the woman was killed in sacrifice to accompany his soul.

"From an initial examination they appear young as their teeth are not worn down but we have sent the remains to a laboratory to establish their age at the time of death."

She added: "I've been doing this job for 25 years. I've done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites. But I've never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special."