If a specific location within the cave became associated with the disposal of the dead, and if that association was maintained across multiple generations, then the burial cluster is itself evidence of cultural transmission — of knowledge about where the dead should go, passed from those who knew to those who would eventually need to know.

The Children of Shanidar

The Shanidar assemblage includes not just adults but also very young individuals.

Shanidar 7, for example, was an infant — a child so young that its skeletal remains are fragmentary and poorly preserved, as infant bone is structurally less robust than adult bone and survives less well over geological time.

The presence of infants and young children in the burial cluster is significant.

If the location was used specifically for burial, and if infants were also placed there, that suggests that the practice extended to all members of the community regardless of age — that the recognition which led to deliberate placement was applied to the youngest members of the group as well as to adults.