Archaeology exists partly to recover information before it disappears.

But preservation can conflict with other values.

A community may value reburial more than indefinite physical preservation.

A sacred object may be meant to be used, renewed, allowed to deteriorate, or kept from public view.

A funerary item may derive its meaning from staying with the person for whom it was made.

Western museum practice historically separated objects from those relationships and treated physical survival as the highest priority.

Repatriation asks a different question.

What if preserving the object destroys the relationship?

Spirit Cave makes that question impossible to avoid.

The ancestor was physically preserved for decades.