They tell us relatively little about the social organization, the mortuary practices, the symbolic and ritual life, or the interpersonal relationships of Clovis society.

A burial context changes this.

A burial is, inherently, a social act — it requires at minimum the cooperation of the surviving members of a community in the treatment of the dead.

The specific ways in which a community treats its dead reflect its beliefs, values, social organization, and material circumstances.

The Anzick burial, with its extraordinary concentration of technological wealth associated with a very young child, reflects a community that had specific beliefs about what the dead needed for whatever journey follows death, a social structure that attributed high status to individuals by birth or family connection, the material capacity to deposit significant wealth with the dead, and specific ritual practices including the use of red ochre.

None of these inferences would be possible from the kill sites and surface scatters that make up most of the Clovis record.