The human remains placed in long barrows often included a mix of men, women, and children.[33] The bones of various individuals were often mixed together.[33] This may have reflected a desire to obliterate distinctions of wealth and status among the deceased.[33] Not all of those who died in the Early Neolithic were buried in these long barrows, although what criteria was used to determine whose remains were interred there and whose were not remains unknown.[37] Large sections of the Early Neolithic population were not buried in them, although how their bodily remains are dealt with is not clear.[26] It is possible that they were left in the open air.[26]