Love can take many forms. It can be the love of a mother for his child, the love two sisters feel for each other, it can be romantic love, and so on.
Today in Italy people are celebrating St. Valentine’s day. Today in this article I’d like to celebrate every shade of love by talking about the lovers of Valdaro and the lovers of Modena.
The lovers of Valdaro
In 2007, during an archaeological excavation led by Elena Maria Menotti, archeologists found the rests of two well preserved skeletons dating back to 4000 or 5000 Bc outside the village of Valdaro, in Italy.
What is remarkable about this discovery is that the two skeletons were facing each others and their legs and arms were entwined as they died locked in an embrace. This is the reason why they were nicknamed the lovers of Valdaro.
After analyzing the rests, researchers found that the skeletons of the lovers of Valdaro are of a male and a female and that when they died they were between 18 and 20 years old.
The male skeleton was found with a flint arrowhead near his neck, while the female skeleton was found with a flint blade near the thigh and two flint knives near the pelvis.
Since the skeletons showed no sign of violence, researchers think that all the flint tools that were found were probably buried with the bodies as grave goods.
The most romantic theory is that the lovers of Valdaro died naturally holding each other in an eternal embrace.
If you want to see the famous couple, you have to visit the archaeological museum in Mantua, where the two skeletons are preserved together along with the block of earth in which they were discovered.
The lovers of Modena
Two years after the discovery of the lovers of Valdaro, archaeologists found a new couple buried together in Modena.
The couple was buried hand-in-hand.
The skeletons date back between the 4th and the 6th century AD and were in poor conditions.
As a result, researchers were unable to establish the sex of the skeletons with the traditional genetic analysis and had to try other techniques.
Finally, thanks to a new technique that analyzes a protein found in tooth enamel, researchers from the University of Bologna managed to discover the sex of the two skeletons: two males.
What the relationship between the two individuals was, is still a mistery. They could have been lovers, relatives, friends.
This discovery is unique. In fact, even if archaeologists have already found other couples buried hand-in-hand in the past, none of them involved two people of the same sex.
Whatever the relationship between the two men, the love they felt for each other has survived till today.
Now, if you feel like write a small text in Italian.
– What do you think about the lovers of Valdaro and the lovers of Modena?
– What was the most romantic thing your special one did for you?
Happy St. Valentine’s day!
Credits
Original image by pixel2013
Eight meanings of the Italian verb girare
