Archeologists Find 4,800 Year Old Fossil of a Mother Cradling a Baby in Taiwan

A Stone Age fossil of a mother holding a baby were found by archeologists in Taiwan. They claim it could be the earliest sign of human activity found in central Taiwan.

According to reports, the mother was just 160 cm tall, or 5 foot 2 inches, while the infant is 50 cm - just over a foot-and-a-half.

4,800 y.o. fossil of mother holding child presented in Taiwan, #archaeology , #MothersDay , https://t.co/3lDQvzWZDO pic.twitter.com/e6vTWf2b3m

— Archaeology & Arts (@archaiologia_en) April 27, 2016

The fossil of the mother and her baby is just one of the 48 sets of remains unearthed in graves in the Taichung area, Reuters reports. The excavation of the site began in May 2014 and took a year to complete.

"When it was unearthed, all of the archaeologists and staff members were shocked. Why? Because the mother was looking down at the baby in her hands," Chu Whei-lee, a curator in the Anthropology Department at Taiwan's National Museum of Natural Science, said in a statement.

Using carbon dating, the archeologists said the remains date back to 4,800 years ago.

"They date to the Neolithic period. Other evidence of humans in Taiwan from around this period have been found in more coastal areas. This includes the Dapenkeng culture, which emerged between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago in northern Taiwan," notes Ibtimes UK.

Citing People's Daily Online, Daily Mail writes this is not the first time such a notable discovery has been made, "Chinese archaeologists unearthed the interlocked skeletons of a mother and child last year from an early Bronze Age archaeological site branded the 'Pompeii of the East.'"

Around the world, archeologists have been making outstanding discoveries that could help trace back the origins of the human species. Recently, an ancient human skull has been discovered in Sangiran. According to Jakarta post, the skull of a Homo erectus has been unearthed after the absence of any discoveries of ancient human fossils for 80 years.

"This archaic skull fossil adds to around 100 ancient human skulls we have. For the archaic type, we now have two fossils. The first fossil was found in 1936 and the second is the one we found in February 2016," said Sukronedi, head of the Ancient Human Site Conservation Agency ( BPSMP ) Sangiran, told the paper.