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Dozens of Bronze Age graves containing the skeletal remains of couples embracing unearthed in Siberia

By strangeremains on December 10, 2013 • ( 1 )

Pictures from Vyacheslav Molodin, Lilya Kobeleva via Siberian Times of an Andronov burial containing a couple.

Siberian archaeologists excavating in the Novosibirsk region (map) of Russia have found a necropolis containing about 600 graves believed to belong to the Andronovo culture. In this necropolis are dozens of burials containing the skeletal remains of couples embracing each other, estimated to date between the 17th and 14th centuries BC. Many of the burials also contained grave goods bronze decorations, ceramic pottery and weapons.

There are a few of theories about why the couples were buried together. The first, the one I choose to believe, is that these couples died about the same time and were buried together so that they would not have to be separated in death. The second theory is that the burials are linked to reincarnation rituals where a deceased man and a sacrificed woman, possibly the wife, simulate sexual intercourse in the grave.