Ice Age infants discovered in Austria

The 27,000-year-old skeletons of two Ice Age infants have been found near Krems in northern Austria, the first discovery of its kind in Europe.

The perfectly preserved skeletons, measuring 40cm, had been protected by a mammoth's shoulder-blade bone, under which they had been buried on a sheltered hillside on the banks of the River Danube.

The grave, discovered 5.5m below ground, also contained a necklace of 31 pearls made from mammoth ivory and was located next to an area inhabited by ancient "homo sapiens fossilis," newspapers reported.

"It is the first discovery of a child's grave dating from this period," the excavation manager, Christine Neugebauer-Maresch, confirmed to the daily newspaper Kurier. "They may have been twins, but we have not yet been able to establish that," she told Die Presse.