But some general considerations can be brought to bear.

Caves in the karst limestone of Prince of Wales Island were natural features that would have been well-known to the people who moved through the island’s landscape.

Their presence, their specific characteristics, and their utility for various purposes — shelter, storage, ceremony — would have been part of the accumulated knowledge of the community.

Specific caves might have been known as good places for certain resources (cave bear fat, perhaps, or the bones of specific animals), as places of spiritual significance, or simply as reliable shelter locations in a landscape where weather could be dangerous.

The presence of human remains in On Your Knees Cave does not necessarily indicate that the man died there, though that is one possibility.