The skull was largely intact.

The limb bones were present.

The overall picture was of a young man in reasonably good health at the time of his death.

What was immediately apparent was the great age of the remains.

The bones were in a state of preservation consistent with great antiquity, and their depth in the sediment suggested they had been buried for a very long time.

Early dating attempts using the tools available in the early twentieth century produced estimates that placed the burial in the distant past, though the precision of those early methods was limited.