A newly discovered Ice Age burial site apparently reserved for infants is giving researchers insight into death rituals from that point in time.

According to Live Science, the researchers uncovered the remains of a three-year-old child about 11,500 years old and found cremated remains of two infants underneath. In an ancient hearth in central Alaska, the team found the three-year-old's cremated remains in 2010 and returned three years later to discover the infants.

Nearly 16 inches beneath the child, the researchers, whose study is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found the two infants who were buried together.

"Taken collectively, these burials and cremation reflect complex behaviors related to death among the early inhabitants of North America," study lead author Ben Potter, an associate professor and chairman of anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said in a press release.

Realizing they had come upon the remains of infants, they reportedly contacted regional native groups and state officials to gain permission to proceed with their work.

"When we got to the bottom [of the hearth], we identified a carpet of red ochre. That clearly set it out," Potter told Live Science. "Then, we encountered the human remains and the grave goods at the very bottom. That was very unexpected and amazing."

He said the two infants' positioning suggested they were related and, though that cannot be confirmed, they may have been twins.

"They were placed in the position that we could infer that they were attached," Potter said. "Imagine if you are a hunter on the landscape. You wouldn't want to carry a large amount of heavy spears or dart shafts with you. You would just have one or two [foreshafts], but you would have many points in case you break one.

"One could have died in utero, and then that enhances the potential for an early death for the surviving child."