Ukraine burial couple: 3000 year old wife buried alive to be with husband in afterlife. Ternopil wife makes ultimate sacrifice of eternal love.
A Ukraine couple believed to have lived over 3000 years ago have been found locked in embrace at an ancient grave burial site.
Archeologists surveying the scene close to the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil say the woman made the ultimate sacrifice when she willfully agreed to be entombed alive to accompany her husband to the afterlife.
Photos released show the ancient wife wrapped around her husband’s deceased rigid body, her knees bent drawn over the man’s legs, her body tilted to the side, her elbows bent and lying to the side, with the woman’s head nestled underneath the man’s chin.
The claim follows autopsy experts saying it wouldn’t be possible to place the woman’s body in such a way had she already been dead.
The dailymail reported experts saying it was likely the woman chose to die and be buried with her husband. Archeologists believe the wife may have drunk poison as she climbed into the grave and embraced her recently dead partner.
Ukraine burial couple: Vysotskaya – or Wysocko – culture known for tenderness of its burials.
The Bronze Age ‘eternal couple’ according to archeologists hailing from the prehistoric Vysotskaya – or Wysocko – culture were found near Petrykiv village, south of the city of Ternopil in western Ukraine.
Professor Mykola Bandrivsky – who conducted a study of ‘loving couple burials’ – said: ‘It is a unique burial, a man and a woman lying there, hugging each other tight.
‘Both faces were gazing at each other, their foreheads were touching.
‘The woman was lying on her back, with her right arm she was tenderly hugging the man, her wrist lying on his right shoulder.
‘The legs of the woman were bent at the knees – lying on the top of the men’s stretched legs.
‘Both the dead humans were clad in bronze decorations, and near the heads was placed some pottery items – a bowl, a jar and three bailers.’
This ancient culture was known for the ‘tenderness’ of its burials, said Dr Bandrivsky, Director of the Transcarpathian branch of the Rescue Archaeological Service of the Institute of Archeology of Ukraine.
Ukraine burial couple: Both men and women had pre-subscribed roles in society.
The latest discovery is striking from previous cases in which other burials revealed ‘a man holding the hands of a woman, the lips of a man touching forehead of a woman, or or arms of both dead people hugging each other’.
Dr Bandrovsky – who has carried out an analysis of such burials – said: ‘From our point of view, this women did it voluntarily.
‘Maybe, the woman did not want to live with some other man, and get used to some new way of life.
‘So she preferred to pass away with her husband.
‘We suppose such a decision was dictated only by her own desire, and her attempt to stay with her beloved one.’
Offering further, ‘She may, for example, have drunk a chalice of poison to make joining her husband easy and painless.’
Marriage was well developed in the Vysotskaya Culture, with husbands and wives having clearly defined responsibilities, he said.
A tenet of their beliefs was the idea that the woman preferred to die with her man. ‘People in late Bronze Age believed in eternal life of the human soul.’
Added the renowned Ukrainian archeologist, ‘It is interesting that in other parts of Europe dead men and women in couple burials were laid next to each other.
‘But in the Vysotskaya culture the couples in double graves were arranged in a way to demonstrate the tenderness and greatest sympathy towards each other.’
