--- title: Taiwan: 4,800-Year-Old Fossil of Mother Embracing Baby Found description: Archaeologists discovered the fossilized remains of a mother cradling a baby in Taiwan, museum officials said canonical: https://time.com/4309095/fossil-mother-child-embrace-taiwan-archaeology/ author: Mark Rivett-Carnac article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-27T05:48:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:04:02.393Z article:section: Science og:title: 4,800-Year-Old Fossil of Mother Embracing Baby Found og:description: They are the earliest evidence of human activity in central Taiwan og:url: https://time.com/4309095/fossil-mother-child-embrace-taiwan-archaeology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93288012f525b1f2/698890d55f570f4173b20aac/rtx2br18.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A view of a fossil of a mother and baby in Taichung City og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 4,800-Year-Old Fossil of Mother Embracing Baby Found twitter:description: They are the earliest evidence of human activity in central Taiwan twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93288012f525b1f2/698890d55f570f4173b20aac/rtx2br18.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 4,800-Year-Old Fossil of Mother Embracing Baby Found in Taiwan by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Apr 27, 2016 5:48 AM CUT  A view of a fossil of a mother and baby in Taichung City, Taiwan, on April 26, 2016, in this still image taken from video A view of a fossil of a mother and baby in Taichung City, Taiwan, on April 26, 2016, in this still image taken from videoReuters by [Mark Rivett-Carnac](/author/mark-rivett-carnac/) ## Mark Rivett-Carnac Apr 27, 2016 5:48 AM CUT Archaeologists have [discovered](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-fossils-idUSKCN0XN1WI "undefined") the fossilized remains of a mother cradling a baby in Taiwan, museum officials said Tuesday. The pair have held each other for 4,800 years. “When it was unearthed, all of the archaeologists and staff members were shocked,” said Chu Whei-lee, a curator at Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science, according to Reuters. “Why? Because the mother was looking down at the baby in her hands.” The mother and child were found during the excavation of 48 sets of remains from graves near the central city of Taichung. The fossils are believed to be the earliest evidence of human activity in central Taiwan. \[[_Reuters_](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-fossils-idUSKCN0XN1WI "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4309095/fossil-mother-child-embrace-taiwan-archaeology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4309095/fossil-mother-child-embrace-taiwan-archaeology/"},"headline":"4,800-Year-Old Fossil of Mother Embracing Baby Found in Taiwan","datePublished":"2016-04-27T05:48:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:04:02.393Z","description":"The fossils are believed to be the earliest evidence of human activity on the island","url":"https://time.com/4309095/fossil-mother-child-embrace-taiwan-archaeology/","keywords":["Archaeology","Taiwan","Mother","child"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93288012f525b1f2/698890d55f570f4173b20aac/rtx2br18.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Rivett-Carnac","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-rivett-carnac/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt93288012f525b1f2/698890d55f570f4173b20aac/rtx2br18.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A view of a fossil of a mother and baby in Taichung City","caption":"A view of a fossil of a mother and baby in Taichung City","creditText":"Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/archaeology/","name":"Archaeology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4309095/fossil-mother-child-embrace-taiwan-archaeology/","name":"4,800-Year-Old Fossil of Mother Embracing Baby Found in Taiwan"}}]}] ```