Buried In Each Other's Arms.... SCIENTIST DISCOVER 'Remains' Of World's Most Ancient `Nuclear Family !!!

by **J The Kidd** Tue Nov 18, 2008 1:56 pm

With the children facing their parents, the illustration, top
right, shows how the boys aged eight and four were buried with their
mother and father.

For more than four thousand years since their violent deaths they have lain together - a mother, father and their two boys.

They are, say archaeologists, the earliest known example of the
nuclear family, carefully buried side by side, perhaps by grieving
relatives or friends.

The find sheds tantalising light on the life of our prehistoric
ancestors living at the dawn of civilisation in Europe. It also
suggests that family values have been thriving since before the time of
Stonehenge.

The family - who appear to have been slaughtered in a raid by a rival
tribe - were identified from fragments of DNA in their skeletons. The
boys were aged eight and four.

Dr Alistair Pike, head of archaeology at the University of Bristol, who
took part in the study, said: 'It is the first time we can conclusively
prove a family has been buried together.

'Graves which have been discovered pre-dating this find show
collections of maybe hundreds of skeletons thrown together. Whoever
buried the family obviously knew they were family and deemed it
important they were buried together facing oneanother.'