The conifer pollen and the quartz grains both supported an age in the range of approximately 21,000 to 23,000 years for the footprint horizons.

The dates were not identical — different methods applied to different materials in different parts of the site will always produce some variation — but they were broadly concordant, and they were concordant in a way that specifically addressed the reservoir effect concern.

The 2023 results did not silence all skepticism.

Scientific debates about something this significant rarely end with a single publication, however well-designed.

Some researchers continued to note uncertainties in the luminescence dates and called for additional lines of evidence.

The conversation in the scientific literature has continued.