That is a form of institutional memory: knowledge held by the community rather than residing in any single individual.

Institutional memory of this kind is one of the defining features of cultural practice.

A practice is cultural when it is transmitted and maintained across individuals and generations, not when it arises spontaneously in each individual independently.

The burial cluster at Shanidar, if it reflects deliberate practice, is evidence for cultural transmission of mortuary behavior among Neanderthals.

That is a significant claim.

It is also one of the most interesting implications of the Shanidar evidence, and one that deserves more attention in discussions of what the site tells us about Neanderthal cognition.