They passed through several sets of hands.

They were analyzed by physical anthropologists who determined what they could from the fragmentary skeletal evidence.

They were radiocarbon dated.

They were compared to other ancient human remains from the Americas.

And they generated, over those decades, a persistent and uncomfortable question that physical anthropology alone could not fully answer.

Where did these people come from?

The morphological analysis of ancient human skulls from the Americas — the study of skull shape and facial features as indicators of population affinity — had generated considerable controversy throughout the latter half of the twentieth century.

The skulls of some of the earliest known Americans appeared, to some researchers, to differ in shape from those of later Native American populations and to show closer resemblance to skulls from other parts of the world, particularly from southeastern Asia or even from ancient European populations.