They brought it up twice in the article, but I didn’t include it. :’) It’s tough to say if that’s true or not, given the paucity of ancient remains, and practically all of the surviving remains are adults, i.e., few children. That could mean the children’s remains were, uh, lunch, or they could have been cremated, or they were given burial in ways that pretty much guaranteed they wouldn’t fossilize etc.
Or, they had very little childhood mortality, so most people died as adults. :’)
It amazes me when something like this is found in this way — looks like this one had a slip and fall injury, died in pain stuck in this slot in the rock, and was never found. OR, this spot was a place of execution, and she was pushed into it and abandoned. Either way, she didn’t just rot and then turn to dust. Amazing.
Sounds like it was a dangerous crack in the earth that was snagging the unwary for many centuries.