4800-year-old fossil of mother cradling baby found in Taiwan

Archaeologists in Taiwan have discovered a fossil of a mother cradling her child believed to be almost 5000 years old.

The remains were unearthed at Ann He Road Ruin in Taichung city and are from the neolithic age, which means they are up to 4800 years old.

When the archaeologists and staff members came across the mother and child they were "shocked", Chu Whei-lee, a curator in the Anthropology Department at Taiwan's National Museum of Natural Science, said yesterday.

"Because the mother was looking down at the baby in her hands," he said.

The mother was 1.6m tall and the baby 50cm.

The archaeological team began their work in May, 2014, and took a year to excavate the graves of 48 human fossils, of which five are children.

The discovery marks the earliest traces of human civilisation found in central Taiwan.