Children are mobile, biologically speaking — they grow, they shed teeth, they survive or they do not.

The preservation of two milk teeth in the sediment of an archaeological site that was occupied over an extended period does not mean there were only two children.

It means two teeth happened to be preserved in the locations and conditions that survived to the excavation.

But it tells us that children were there.

Not just adults, not just hunters, not just the strong and capable individuals who could most obviously justify their presence in such a demanding environment.

Children, with their needs and their vulnerabilities and their years of dependency, were present above the Arctic Circle in the depths of the Ice Age.