Hasanlu Lovers

The Hasanlu Lovers are human remains found by a team from the University of Pennsylvania led by Robert Dyson at the Teppe Hasanlu archaeological site, located in the Solduz Valley in the West Azerbaijan Province of Iran, in 1972.

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 some websites and sources identify the skeletons as both being male, the skeletons are male and female (female on the left).

The pair of skeletons was found in a bin-like structure with no other objects except a stone slab under the head of one skeleton. They died together around 800 B.C., during the destruction of the Teppe Hasanlu citadel, probably of asphyxiation.