The Lovers of Valdaro are a pair of Neolithic skeletons, a young man and a young woman, buried face to face with their arms around each other about 6,000 years ago. Archaeologists uncovered them in 2007 near Mantua in northern Italy, and since April 2014 they have been on permanent display in a glass case at the National Archaeological Museum of Mantua. There is no sign that they died violently, and nobody knows what their real relationship was. What we do know is that someone laid them in that embrace deliberately.
Below is what the excavation and bone analysis actually showed, what remains guesswork, and why this small grave became one of the most photographed finds in European archaeology.
The discovery near Mantua in 2007
The grave turned up during building work at Valdaro, in the municipality of San Giorgio just outside Mantua, in Lombardy. The site was part of a Neolithic burial ground, and the excavation was led by archaeologist Elena Maria Menotti. When the two skeletons emerged with their limbs intertwined, the image went around the world within days. Some early news reports described them as 5,000 years old; the figure usually given now is around 6,000 years, placing them in the later Neolithic, when farming communities were well established in the Po Valley.
The pair as displayed in Mantua: two skeletons on their sides, facing each other, arms wrapped around one another. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Menotti made an unusual decision for the time. Instead of lifting the bones one by one, the team kept the couple together: the whole block of soil holding them was cut out, boxed in wood and moved intact, so the embrace could be studied and later shown exactly as it was found.
Another view of the double burial, showing how closely the two bodies were placed. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Who were they? What the bones reveal
Osteological study identified one skeleton as male and the other as female. Both were young, no older than about 20 when they died, and both stood roughly 1.57 metres (about 5 feet 2 inches) tall, which was not unusual for Neolithic adults in the region.
The examination found no fractures, no microtrauma and no other marks of a violent death. That matters, because the most dramatic stories about the pair, a murder, a sacrifice, a double suicide, all imply injury. The skeletons do not support any of them. How the two died, and whether they died at the same moment, remains unknown.
The flint objects in the grave
The grave held several worked flint pieces. A flint arrowhead lay near the man's neck. The woman had a long flint blade along her thigh and two flint knives beneath her pelvis. Because none of the bones show wounds, archaeologists read these objects as grave goods, items placed with the dead, rather than weapons that killed them. Neolithic communities across Europe often buried people with tools, ornaments or pottery, possibly as personal possessions or as markers of status and identity.
A closer view of the intertwined arms and legs, which are what made the find famous. Photo: Flickr
Why the embrace is so unusual
Double burials are uncommon in the Neolithic, and one arranged so intimately is rarer still. The Valdaro grave is often described as the only known Neolithic double burial of its kind in northern Italy. Because the pair lay in a cemetery and the position is so precise, it was clearly the work of the people who buried them, not an accident of how two bodies fell.
The name "lovers" is a modern label. The pair could have been partners, but they might equally have been siblings, relatives or two people who died around the same time and were buried together for reasons we cannot see. Without DNA results or written records, the relationship is a matter of interpretation. What the grave does show is care: someone took time to lay two young people facing each other, arms linked, with objects beside them.
Other "lovers" burials and a caution
Italy has a later example that shows why caution is wise. The Lovers of Modena, found in 2009 and dated to between the 4th and 6th centuries AD, were buried holding hands and were at first assumed to be a man and a woman. Analysis of proteins in their tooth enamel by researchers at the University of Bologna later showed that both were male. The Valdaro pair were sexed from their bones, which is generally reliable for adults, but the Modena case is a reminder that the story attached to a grave can run ahead of the evidence.
From excavation to a museum display
After excavation the block was reportedly taken for study at museum laboratories in Como, while Mantua debated where the pair should live. A local association, Lovers in Mantua, campaigned and raised money for a permanent home; at one point it reportedly estimated that a dedicated exhibition space would cost around €250,000, with more needed for a multimedia room.
The Lovers on display at the National Archaeological Museum of Mantua. Photo: Flickr
The skeletons were first shown to the public briefly in September 2011, in an exhibition arranged with the association at the National Archaeological Museum of Mantua. On 11 April 2014 they went on permanent display there, in a glass case. The museum stands within the perimeter of the Ducal Palace of Mantua, so a visit to the pair can easily be combined with the Gonzaga palace and Mantegna's famous painted Camera degli Sposi.
Common myths about the Lovers of Valdaro
- "They were killed together." There is no skeletal evidence of violence. The flint pieces are best explained as grave goods.
- "They died in each other's arms." The embrace was arranged at burial. We do not know whether they died at the same time.
- "They were a married couple." Their relationship is unknown; "lovers" is a nickname given by modern observers.
- "They are still waiting for a home." That was true for a few years after 2007, but they have been on permanent public display in Mantua since 2014.
Why this grave still moves people
Most prehistoric burials tell us about tools, diet or disease. This one speaks to something else: the choices of mourners. Six thousand years ago, a farming community decided that two young people belonged together in death and arranged them so. We will probably never know their names or their story, but the gesture itself is easy to read, and that is why the Lovers of Valdaro feel so close to us.
For another find where the label ran ahead of the proof, see The Nanjing Buddhist Shrine and a Relic Attribution.
Sources: Wikipedia: Lovers of Valdaro; Wikipedia: Lovers of Modena; The Vintage News; photos via Wikimedia Commons and Flickr.
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