| Author |
Message |
    
Sweetsunray
storyteller
Username: Sweetsunray
Post Number: 1220
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 12:15 am: |     |
http://www.livescience.com/history/070207_ap_romeo_juliet.html
Fromt he article:"ROME (AP) — It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love.
Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.
Buried between 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric lovers 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 told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. “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 in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.
Experts now will study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site's age and how old the two were when they died, she said."
aaaaaaaaah 
Everyone has a motive for giving arguments. But only the arguments given matter. |
Scott
flint knapper
Username: Scott
Post Number: 1812
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 4:04 am: | |
Thanks Sweetsunray!!!!!
This proves that Shakespeare had a time machine! 
Seriously this is quite interesting and double burials are quite rare the further back you go.
Scott
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ces gens, Jondalar, ils sourient. Ils me sourient. - Ayla |
Rhi
hunter
Username: Rhi
Post Number: 476
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 4:55 am: | |
If double burials are rare, how rare is the is the Dolni Vestonice? I know it is unique for the placement of the bodies, but I wasn't aware that double burials were unique. Are communal burials rare as well? Are "modern day" communal burials, from plague or war, unknown or rare in the past?
Mostly Harmless
A Knock on the Duir "If ye don't be belaving innything what fun are ye going to get out av life?" Judy Plum, LM Montgomery |
Scott
flint knapper
Username: Scott
Post Number: 1817
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 5:40 am: | |
Sungir is the most famous. Of course Dolni Vestonice is a triple burial and alone as far as I know. You also have Krems-Wachtberg, Grimaldi, Grotte des Enfants, Parabita II, . You see multiple burials but not a lot. The only Neanderthal double burial La Ferrassie, LF4 was recently eliminated as such.
You do see communal burials as in lots buried in a single cave (See La Ferrassie or Krapina) but not usually together. Before Neanderthals you have a few caves in Spain with huge numbers of bones and individuals, such as Atapuerca.
We don't have evidence of war in the upper, middle or lower paleolithic. I am not sure of the Neolithic though. Apparently double burials are rare in the Neolithic.
Scott
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Ces gens, Jondalar, ils sourient. Ils me sourient. - Ayla |
Annie
storyteller
Username: Annie
Post Number: 2001
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 08, 2007 - 5:59 am: | |
Well, double burials may be rare because they require the not-so-insignificant detail that both members of the couple die at approximately the same time.  I would be a bit more comfortable with considering it "romantic" if I were reassured that both of the couple (if that's what they were) died naturally, or at least neither was murdered just so s/he could be buried with the other. I'm just reminded of the Indian practice of Sati here...
Chess is the purest form of debate, unadulterated by a topic. |
Per
bear cub
Username: Per
Post Number: 43
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Saturday, February 10, 2007 - 2:24 pm: | |
A good number of burialmounds and megalit graves here in Denmark contains bones from many individuals. They wheren't put there at the same time, but over a generation or three ....
Some of the places in North Europe apears to have the dead laid out to scaving birds. When the remains where only a number of clean bones where they put into the graves. I haven't got a clue if this where a geographic or time divided zone or both for that matter. |
|
People, Places, Cultures and Resources