Older children’s burials include objects that suggest the grave goods reflected what the individual was learning — tools associated with the skills appropriate to the age and apparent role of the child.

The interpretation of this pattern is necessarily cautious, because we cannot access the beliefs that motivated these choices.

But the material record is clear: children were not buried with less because they were considered less.

They were buried with things — possibly toys, possibly ornaments, possibly objects that were meaningful to the community in ways we cannot specify — that indicate the community acknowledged children as full members deserving of mortuary attention.

The necklaces found with the two-year-old were made with materials that required either coastal access or trade connections.