The Angel From My Nightmare

The Hasanlu Lovers are human remains uncovered at the Teppe Hasanlu archaeological site, located in the Solduz Valley in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran.

The image depicts two human skeletons, seemingly in an embrace, which earned the photograph its title Hasanlu Lovers or The 2800 Years Old Kiss.Though many non-scholarly websites and sources identify the skeletons as both being male, according to “The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran"by Muhammad A. Dandamaev, Vladimir G. Lukonin, Philip L. Kohl published by Cambridge University Press, the skeletons are male and female (female on the left). Archaeology magazine also identifies them as male and female with the additional information of their height (around 5 foot 2 inches each) ( Volume 61 Number 1, January/February 2008). The “curious pair of skeletons embracing each other was found in a bin-like structure…” with no other objects except a stone slab under the head of one skeleton

The pair of entwined skeletons were discovered in 1972 in Teppe Hasanlu, and The Lovers, as they are termed, were estimated to have died together around 800 B.C. The skeletons do appear like they are kissing each other before they died.