The ochre that coated both the child and the artifacts is particularly significant in broader context.

Red ochre appears in human burials and ceremonial contexts across the globe and across deep time — in sites in Africa dating back over 100,000 years, in European Paleolithic burials, in Australian rock art contexts, in sites across Asia.

Its recurrence in so many different cultures and time periods suggests that its use reflects something fundamental about how humans have long marked significance, transformation, and the boundary between the living and the dead.

Finding it at Anzick, used in a way consistent with deliberate burial practice, connects this child to a tradition of human care for the dead that is among our species’ oldest documented behaviors.