The Washington Post today carried news of the discovery of 30,000 year old infant burials. While several adult burials from this time period have been found, until now nothing had been found to indicate our ancient ancestors buried their infant dead with the same care. Scientists weren't sure if this was because infant burials were much more fragile, or if they just weren't burying their kids.

Which to me is a pretty dumb thing to say. Caring for the young is a hallmark of mammals, let alone half-crazed naked apes who can cook up a half dozen theories about life after death during breakfast. Infant skeletons are amazingly fragile things... the skulls feel like thick eggshell and half of it is made of cartilage. It's a wonder even relatively modern infant burials leave anything behind.

Still, it is a confirmation that we've been mourning our dead for a very long time indeed.