The bird carving is particularly notable because it represents a category of object found at multiple Upper Paleolithic sites — the representation of a flying animal, a creature that crosses the boundary between terrestrial and aerial worlds.

What birds meant to the people of Mal’ta is beyond recovery from the archaeological evidence alone, but that they meant something — that they were chosen as a subject of artistic attention — is evident.

Stone tools were also present in the burial assemblage.

Whether these were tools the child had owned, tools placed for use in a perceived afterlife, or objects included for other reasons is not determinable from the physical evidence alone.

The total picture is one of a burial that required substantial resources and sustained labor.