4,800-year-old skeleton of a mother holding her six-month-old child. Believed to be an ancestor of the Austronesian peoples who spread across the Pacific. Taichung, Taiwan, Dapenkeng culture, 2800 BC

4,800-year-old skeleton of a mother holding her six-month-old child. Believed to be an ancestor of the Austronesian peoples who spread across the Pacific. Taichung, Taiwan, Dapenkeng culture, 2800 BC

The 48 sets of remains unearthed in tombs in the Taichung area are the oldest trace of human activity found in central Taiwan. The most surprising discovery among them was the skeleton of a young mother looking down at a child cradled in her arms.

“When it was unearthed, all the archaeologists and staff members were shocked. Why? Because the mother was staring at the baby in her hands,” said Chu Whei-lee, curator of the Department of Anthropology at Taiwan’s National Museum of Natural Science.

Excavation of the site began in May 2014 and took a year to complete. Carbon dating was used to determine the ages of the fossils, which included five children.