This is not a universal pattern across mortuary behavior in any population.

Different societies have different practices for infants and children who die, and those practices often differ from what is done for adults.

The inclusion of very young individuals in the Shanidar cluster may reflect the specific practices of this community, and it adds to the picture of a burial practice that was applied broadly rather than selectively.

The infant and child remains also provide a different kind of information about the community.

The presence of children who died in infancy or early childhood is evidence of the normal demographic challenges that all hunter-gatherer communities faced — high infant and child mortality, the constant possibility of losing community members before they reached reproductive age.