The Final Truth That Numbers Cannot Capture

All of the dates and the genetic percentages and the taphonomic analyses and the artifact counts converge on something that numbers cannot fully express: a child died, and people who loved that child buried them with the things they valued most.

Thirteen thousand years is not, in some frameworks, a particularly long time.

It is shorter than the duration of agriculture in the Middle East.

It is far shorter than the time modern humans have been the dominant primate on earth.