It was a human one — the attempt to do something equal to the magnitude of what had happened.

And the objects they made, the ochre they applied, the stone they placed, represent that attempt in the most direct way that physical evidence can represent human intention.

That attempt — the attempt to mark the death of a child in a way that is worthy of the person and the loss — is not limited to Mal’ta or to 24,000 years ago.

It is a human constant.