The wife who made the ultimate sacrifice for a 3,000-year loving embrace

An ancient man and woman have been found locked in a loving embrace for 3,000 years in a grave in Ukraine.

The woman was willingly entombed alive in order to accompany her husband to the next world, archeologists believe.

Autopsy experts say it would not be possible to place the woman’s body in such a loving position if she was already dead.

The experts say it is likely the woman chose to die and be buried with her husband. They believe she may have drunk poison as she climbed into the grave and embraced her recently dead partner.

The extraordinary burial saw the couple clasped together since the Bronze Age in eternal love.

The pair, 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.’