Scientists find prehistoric “nuclear family”

LONDON (Reuters) – A 4,600-year-old grave in Germany containing the remains of two adults and their children provides the earliest evidence that even prehistoric tribes attached importance to the family unit, researchers said on Monday.

The researchers used DNA analysis and other techniques to determine that the group buried facing each other — an unusual practice in Neolithic culture — consisted of a mother, father and their two sons aged 8-9 and 4-5 years.

"By establishing the genetic links between the two adults and two children buried together in one grave, we have established the presence of the classic nuclear family in a prehistoric context in Central Europe — to our knowledge the oldest authentic molecular genetic evidence so far," Wolfgang Haak of the University of Adelaide said in a statement.

"Their unity in death suggests a unity in life."

The remains were found in graves that held a total of 13 people, all of whom had been interned simultaneously, Haak and colleagues reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Several were buried face-to-face, with arms and hands interlinked in many cases. The remains included children ranging from newborns up to 10 years of age, and adults of around 30 years or older. …