Hasanlu Lovers

Hasanlu is an ancient Near Eastern site located in the Qadar River valley, on the southern shore of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran. The city was occupied consistently from the sixth millennium BCE to around 800 BCE, when the site was invaded and destroyed by fire. Then, in 1956, the Hasanlu Project was launched under the sponsorship of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Archaeological Service of Iran. Because of this, archaeologists do not know how the people of Hasanlu would have identified themselves, who they were, or the language they would have spoken. The original name of the city is unknown. == Rediscovery and excavation ==

suggests that the hole in the right skeleton's skull is not due to an injury, but the result of a blow created by a workman's pickaxe. When discovered, the two skeletons were facing and embracing each other. The skeleton on the left is lying on its left side, reaching with its right hand towards the skeleton on the right. There is no definitive explanation as to how the two skeletons ended up in the binonly assumptions. One assumption is that "they must have crawled into this bin, which was probably covered at the time, and escaped detection." Since cause of death was not due to injury, archaeologists have concluded that the probable cause of death was asphyxiation, when debris fell from the burning building, and sealed them in. == Scientific analysis ==

Anthropologists Page Selinsky and Janet Monge go into extensive detail about the DNA testing of the Hasanlu lovers and how the DNA testing Isotopic signatures coming from oxygen revealed the individuals' settlement patterns; these oxygen isotopic signatures revealed that the 'lovers', and the other Hasanlu people, were all born and raised in the Hasanlu area. and skeletal assessment. Dr Selinsky stated that the pelvis was the single best criterion for estimating the sex of the skeletons as there are distinctive features between a female and a male pelvis. The skeleton on the right (referred to as SK 335) is lying on its back. The front portion of his pelvis was lost but when examining his sciatic notch, it was evident he was a male due to the very narrow gap which is a distinctive feature of the male pelvis. As such, researchers identified the skeleton as male largely based on the pelvis. The skeleton had no apparent evidence of disease or healed lifetime injuries. For the left skeleton (SK 336), lying on its left side facing SK 335, the sex estimation was less clear, but overall research suggests a male: the cranium is distinctively male, while the pelvis is more mixed in its morphology. At the time of excavation, this skeleton was originally identified as female. This was because his sciatic notch was quite wide, a characteristic of a female pelvis, but the front portion of his pelvis which was retrieved from the site, had an acute angle in the front and was less pulled out than a female's, which suggested the skeleton was a male. The individual appeared to have been healthy in life, and the skeleton had no apparent evidence of healed lifetime injuries. The sex of the 'lovers' was confirmed from a bone sample for an ancient DNA analysis. The genetic determination of the Hasanlu lovers was male. The age of the two skeletons was also determined. Dental evidence suggests that the right skeleton was a young adult or subadult, estimated to be aged 19–22 years old, as he has third molars, and his wisdom teeth recently grew. His skull was less developed, which was attributable to the young age of the individual. The left skeleton was estimated to be an older adult 30–35 years old; his skull had fully developed, and the cranium was distinctively male. == Controversy ==

Some researchers decry the sensationalism surrounding the Hasanlu Lovers as an example of non-Heteronormativity. The two skeletons received their sobriquet 'Hasanlu Lovers' due to the intimate position they were found in. Before the skeletons were subjected to DNA analysis one skeleton was thought to be male and the other female. Oscar Muscarella, who was co-director of excavations at Hasanlu in the 1960s, states, "I knew at first sight who was the female," in reference to the two skeletons. However, the team from the University of Pennsylvania assessed that the right skeleton was likely male due to its morphology. The left skeleton had less clear osteological indicators, but was later identified to be male through DNA analysis. Geller states that projecting contemporary assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality onto the past can be problematic, and that the true relationship between the two skeletons is unknown and remains up to speculation, despite the implications that may be drawn from their seemingly intimate pose. == See also ==