Thirteen thousand years ago, in whatever vessel the first visitors used, it was navigated too.

Someone looked at that water, understood it as a route rather than a barrier, and crossed it.

They carried with them — in their knowledge, their technology, their community practice, their understanding of the sea — the maritime capability that the island required.

That capability is what the Arlington Springs femora document, in the end.

Not specifically this individual’s crossing — the bones cannot tell us the story of a particular day or a particular voyage.

What they document is the consequence: that by the time those bones were deposited in Arlington Canyon’s accumulating sediment, human beings were already on this island.