  The goal of this work is to determine if the dynamics of individual Taurid
Complex (TC) objects are consistent with the formation of the complex via
fragmentation of a larger body, or if the current orbital affinities between
the TC members result from other dynamical processes. To this end, the orbital
similarity through time of comet 2P/Encke, fifty-one Near-Earth Asteroids
(NEAs) and sixteen Taurid fireballs was explored. Clones of each body were
numerically simulated backwards in time, and epochs when significant fractions
of the clones of any two bodies approached each other with both a low Minimum
Orbit Intersection Distance and small relative velocity were identified. Only
twelve pairs of bodies in our sample show such an association in the past 20
000 years, primarily circa 3200 BCE. These include 2P/Encke and NEAs 2004 TG10,
2005 TF50, 2005 UR, 2015 TX24, and several Southern Taurid fireballs. We find
this orbital convergence to be compatible with the fragmentation of a large
parent body five to six thousand years ago, resulting in the separation of
2P/Encke and several NEAs associated with the TC, as well as some larger
meteoroids now recorded in the Taurid stream. However, the influence of purely
dynamical processes may offer an alternative explanation for this orbital
rapprochement without requiring a common origin between these objects. In order
to discriminate between these two hypotheses, future spectral surveys of the TC
asteroids are required.

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics