Skeletons found holding hands after 700 years, proving love never dies

Archaeologists in England have made a discovery that puts modern love stories to shame: A pair of 700-year-old skeletons holding hands.

See, it is possible to show a little romance, even after so many years.

University of Leicester archaeologists unearthed the bony pair in the lost chapel of St. Morrell in Leicestershire, according to the university. The site served as a point of pilgrimage in Hallaton during the 14th century and has been the center of a four-year excavation project.

In total, 11 skeletal remains have been found buried in the chapel. University of Leicester Archaeological Services project manager Vicki Score said the recovery team has found other couples buried in one grave in the town.

“The main question we find ourselves asking is why were they buried up there? There is a perfectly good church in Hallaton,” she said in a statement. “This leads us to wonder if the chapel could have served as some sort of special place of burial at the time.”

The man and woman could have been pilgrims, or perhaps the two people weren’t allowed to be buried in the main church because they were foreigners, criminals or sick, according to the university.

We’ve seen couples sticking together beyond that whole ’til death do you part business before; in 2007, a pair of 6,000-year-old skeletons were found locked in an apparently eternal embrace in Italy and promptly dubbed the “Lovers of Valdaro.”

It turns out that they were the remains of a man and woman between the ages of 18 and 20 who could have died while holding onto each other, although it’s more likely they were just buried that way, according to Silvia Bagnoli, president of the Lovers in Mantua association.

Embracing couples have also been unearthed in Siberia. It’s still unclear, exactly, why they were buried that way. Washington Post