Archaeologists recently opened a Late Bronze Age (c 1,200 BC) tomb at the huge Metsamor site in Armenia. Inside was a cornucopia of small gold artifacts, including dozens of loose pieces from three gold necklaces that must have been spectacularly beautiful when they were joined together. But even more remarkably, the tomb contained the bodies of a man and a woman who’d been buried side by side, locked in each other’s arms in a loving embrace that was obviously meant to last for eternity.
Were these two individuals star-crossed lovers, who like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet met a tragic fate that prevented them from spending their lives together in this world? Did one die unexpectedly, provoking the other to commit suicide (as Romeo and Juliet did) so they could join their beloved in the afterworld?
Estimates are that the two people were in their 30s at the time of their deaths, so it does seem their deaths were somewhat premature. Unlike the fictional Romeo and Juliet, however, who ended up laying side by side in their tombs despite their family’s attempts to keep them apart, the two Bronze Age partners were intentionally buried side-by-side by family members or friends who chose to honor their relationship in death just as they’d respected it in life.
