Archaeologists have revealed the discovery of a couple locked in an eternal embrace, one that has endured for more than 5,000 to 6,000 years in Mantova in northern Italy.

5,000-6,000 years ago when the couple was buried the area around Mantova was marchland and criss-crossed by rivers and the environment has helped preserve the skeletons in their near perfect state.

"It's an extraordinary case," said Elena Menotti, who led the team on their dig near the northern city of Mantova.

"There has not been a double burial found in the Neolithic period, much less two people hugging -- and they really are hugging."

Elena Menotti surely believes the remains are of a man and woman, but this needs to be confirmed and probably died young because their teeth were mostly intact and not worn down.

"I must say that when we discovered it, we all became very excited. I've been doing this job for 25 years. I've done digs at Pompeii, all the famous sites," she told Reuters.

"But I've never been so moved because this is the discovery of something special."

A laboratory will now try to determine the hugging couple’s age at the time of death, confirm that it is a man and woman and find out more exactly how long they have been buried.

Personally I also hope they find out what killed them, if they died young as they probably did, you can rule out natural causes, also the fact that they are buried together in a state of embrace suggests that they died at nearly the same time.

Well, let’s just hope they’ve been happy together in the after-life, and don’t mind modern scientists getting a kick out of their hugging skeletons.