Oldest Embracing Lovers Found in Turkey?

Embracing LoversTwo ancient skeletons found in each other's arms in a grave in Turkey might be the oldest known embracing couple, archaeologists say.

The remains, believed to be those of a 30-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman, were found last week in the southeastern Turkish province of Diyarbakir.

The team carrying out the excavations found the remains under the floor of an ancient house at the Hakemi Use excavation site in Turkey's Bismil district.

The researchers dated the skeletons to 6100 B.C., said team leader Halil Tekin, an archaeologist at Hacettepe University in Ankara.

"The way they were buried signifies that they were lovers," Tekin was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency. "An illness or even a crime of love may have been the cause of their deaths.

If this dating is correct, the Turkish couple would be some 3,000 years older than two interlocked skeletons discovered last February near Verona, Italy.

Source: National Geographic
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