More than 3,000 years ago, a couple at the Bible site in Bethsaida, in Israel, buried side by side in a spoon position, with the man ‘s arm over the woman’ s body, and archaeologists who found the remains now name the couple “Romeo and Juliet.” ”
Archaeologists believe the people died at the same time, although they are not sure what killed the couple, said Rami Arav, project leader of Bethsaida and professor of religious studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha.
“It is very, very rare to find a couple like this” Arav said at a virtual archeology conference held by New York University and the Israeli Antiquities Authority from October 25 to 28.
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After examining the skeletons, Arav said the male died in his teens and the woman in his early teens or seventeen years. “They apparently died at the same time, or at least [were] buried at the same time before their bodies decayed, “Arav told Living Science. There is no trauma yet [were] visible on the skeletons. We have no idea what killed them. “
Despite the couple’s close funeral situation, archaeologists can’t be sure they were a romantic couple, Arav told Live Science, noting that no matter who the couple buried , placed the bodies in the cushion position. “The‘ spoon setting ’was done by the people [who] they buried them. Probably [the] people who buried them knew the couple ‘s story, Arav said.
Who are they?
“Their offer was not accompanied by an offer or items,” Arav said. Thus, he and his colleagues do not know whether the two individuals were elite members of society or from a mediocre background.
From the remains of archeology and the remaining historical information, archaeologists can tell that, at the time the couple lived, people in Bethsaida were “Aramaic,” Arav said. “The moon god may have been an important god to them, since we found two steles [at Bethsaida] with the image of the god of the moon. ”
They know that Bethsaida is the capital of Geshur, a kingdom mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible, Arav said. The stories told in the Bible claim that Geshur struggled, at times Israel.
Archaeologists would like to extract DNA from the couple’s skeleton to learn more about them, but for now, they have no money to do so.
Excavations at Bethsaida have been ongoing since 1987, and the remains of the couple were found about 10 years ago, Arav said, adding that they are the oldest skeletons found by the research team at the location. The couple’s discovery was presented as part of a paper on Bethsaida that looked at what the site looked like when it was the capital of Geshur. Site and skeletal analysis continues.
First published on Living Science.