[3][5] Hasanlu is an ancient Near Eastern site located in the Qadar River valley, on the southern shore of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran.

[9] Following the launch of the Hasanlu Project, a team of archaeologists from Penn Museum led by Director Robert H. Dyson excavated the site from 1957 to 1974.

Excavation of the site revealed burnt remains of huge mudbrick walls, thick layers of ash, skeletons, vessels, and more.

Archaeologists explain that the nature of the destruction resulted in the city being frozen in time, preserving buildings, artefacts, and skeletal remains.

Some victims were found in groups, with head lacerations, and dismembered limbs which suggested mass executions had taken place.

The skeletal remains of the Hasanlu Lovers were found together in a plaster-lined brick bin with no other objects except a stone slab under the head of one skeleton.

[3][11] The excavation took place in 1973, directed by Robert H. Dyson, Jr. Dr. Selinsky stated that the lovers perished together during the invasion of the site, around 800 BCE, during the last destruction of the Hasanlu,[3] but did not have any lethal wounds.

[3] Archaeologist Oscar Muscarella 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.

Isotopic signatures indicate that the diets of the residents of Hasanlu were varied, including wheat, barley, sheep and goats.

Dental evidence suggests that the right skeleton was a young adult or subadult, estimated to be aged 19–22 years old,[3] as he has third molars, and his wisdom teeth recently grew.

[7] 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.

[3] Some researchers argue sensationalism about the Hasanlu Lovers, and other potential examples of non-heteronormative behaviours in the past are problematic.

Muscarella, an archaeologist who was heavily invested in the discoveries made at Hasanlu, states, "I knew at first sight who was the female,"[16] in reference to the two skeletons.

[15] Reasons for expecting the skeletons to be a heteronormative couple, as Killgrove and Geller explain, are because modern society is primed by culture to see this representation.

[15][17] Geller states that projecting contemporary assumptions about sex, gender, and sexuality onto the past can be problematic,[17] 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 apparently intimate pose.