Chinese archaeologists discovered a mother and her child’s entwined skeletons and said that the two had been in a loving embrace for 4,000 years.
In Qinghai province, China, archaeologists found the 4,000-year-old skeletons of a mother and infant still enmeshed in a final embrace, providing tangible evidence of a mother’s love. The two skeletons are preserved in space and time in the position they occupied just before China’s “Pompeii of the East” was destroyed by an earthquake around 2,000 BC. Archaeologists say that the mother’s arms were wrapped around her son in an embrace and a desperate attempt to shield him from the impending disaster.
The mother was trying to shield her child from a massive earthquake that struck China in 2000 BC and triggered massive floods; the event is sometimes referred to as ‘China’s Pompeii’. The site is riddled with tragic scenes.
Lajia Ruins Museum, located in northwest China’s Qinghai province, is a 4000-year-old earthquake relic, with very well preserved artefacts and skeletons. The entire disaster scene is so shocking it has been likened to the Pompeii tragedy. Pompeii was a Roman city wiped off the face of the Earth after a volcanic eruption and ʙᴜʀɪᴇᴅ under ash and pumice.
Archaeologically, the entire site is stunning: it paints an incredibly well-preserved picture of an important ancient event. It is also very important because it holds early clues to an early Bronze Age civilization that lived in the upper Yellow River region and of which we know very little about. But from a human point of view, it’s just heartbreaking.
These people suffered a terrible destiny; despite their best efforts, they were unable to shield themselves from the calamity that claimed their lives. It serves as a reminder of nature’s power and how helpless we can sometimes be in the face of it.
Just please don’t split apart the two skeletons, please. It doesn’t seem right to me to divide the two for any particular reason, and it’s not a religious one either.
