It was the kind of layer that forms when an area is disturbed and then covered — not the kind that forms through undisturbed accumulation.

The Cambridge researchers also documented the wider burial cluster with a precision that had not been achievable in the 1950s.

They could demonstrate that the cluster was not a simultaneous event — that multiple individuals had been added to the same location at different times.

This temporal depth was significant.

If bodies were brought repeatedly to the same spot over an extended period, that pointed toward something more than coincidence.

It suggested that the location held meaning for the community — that it was recognized as a place where the dead were put.