Buried side by side, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ from 5,000 years ago
‘Killed to follow their other half’
THE tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet has captured imaginations throughout the ages.
And now archaeologists believe they may have unearthed a real-life prehistoric version of the starcrossed lovers.
Lying on their sides in an everlasting embrace, a couple have been unearthed at a 5,000-year-old grave site in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan.
Archaeologists say it is likely that one made the ultimate sacrifice and took their own life or was killed to be buried with the other.
Dr Igor Kukushkin, who is in charge of the excavation, said there are unanswered questions about whether the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ couple were together in their lifetimes. But much like Shakespeare’s lovers, he said it was likely they died together.
‘Such coupled burials are not a rarity in our area, but the question of how the second person joined the deceased is still very much in the air,’ he said. ‘Was the woman – or the man – killed to make sure they “followed” their other half?
‘Was this man and woman a husband and wife? Or was the couple made of a man and a woman who were not related, but died around the same time?
‘Our initial research on these skeletons showed no visible harm done to the people, but more detailed work should help clarify the cause of their deaths.’
The woman was wearing jewellery made of semi-precious stones. Nearby was a second grave, encircled by standing stones, that has been disturbed but enough bones remain to suggest it contained another couple. The man is believed to have been an Bronze Age charioteer – because two horses have been buried with him.
The skeletons show the horses were laid to rest back to back in a ‘working position’ as if they were pulling a chariot.