The Mysterious Hasanlu Lovers and Their 2800-Year Old Kiss

Admit it or not, sometimes we hope for a love that can last forever. Well you might want to take your cue from the Hasanlu Lovers. Their gesture of love is an eternal kiss that survived for 2,800 years and they continue to mesmerize archaeologists, excavators and your regular museum-goers to this day.

The set of skeletons was discovered in 1972 inside a bin within the excavation site in Hasanlu, Solduz Valley, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran.

Since then, there have been many speculations about the skeletons but the sweet gesture of their shared kiss, even in death, always makes people ponder about their story.

Upon research by archaeologists from University of Pennsylvania, they discovered that the Hasanlu Lovers died around 800 BC and so they’re estimating that the skeletons were around 2,800 years old. The left skeleton is female and the right is male. Both were around 5 feet 2 inches in height.

Speculations on the cause of death is asphyxiation since the bodies were found inside a bin with a stone slab. Others note the hole in the skull of the male skeleton suggesting some form of struggle took place. He might have been beaten to the head with an object, and perhaps out of love- the female joined him in his death, dying while kissing her beloved.

To this day, nobody knows the real story of the Hasanlu Lovers. Only that they once lived and loved each other and that even death cannot keep them part.