How many founding populations were there?

By what routes did they arrive?

What was the relationship between the first Americans and the diversity of Native American cultures and peoples that developed in the subsequent millennia?

The gap between the humility of the evidence and the scale of the question it is addressing is part of what makes the Paisley story compelling.

A small, preserved biological specimen, analyzed with sophisticated modern technology, contributes to resolving a question about deep human history.

The improbability of this chain — that organic waste deposited in an Oregon cave 14,000 years ago would survive, be found, be analyzed, and yield information relevant to one of archaeology’s most consequential debates — is itself remarkable.