Infant and child mortality in prehistoric populations was high, but children were buried in the same pond and with the same apparent care as adults.

In some cases, children and infants were buried with more grave goods than adults — a pattern that the excavation documented and that speaks to the value the community placed on even its youngest and most vulnerable members.

Older adults present in the cemetery had survived long enough to develop the skeletal markers of arthritis, osteoarthritis, and osteoporosis — conditions that would have been painful and limiting but that did not prevent continued participation in the life of the community.

That older individuals were buried in the same mortuary pond, with the same apparent respect, indicates a community in which age did not diminish one’s place among the dead.