The existence of the Bluefish Caves collection at the Canadian Museum of History — and the accessibility of that collection to the researchers who conducted the 2017 reanalysis — is worth noting explicitly, because it illustrates an important aspect of how archaeological science actually works.

The value of maintaining comprehensive, accessible collections of archaeological and paleontological material is sometimes underappreciated by those outside the field.

Collections take up space, require specialized storage conditions, and demand ongoing resources for maintenance and curation.

The argument for maintaining them can seem abstract — the idea that future researchers using future methods might find new information in old collections — compared to the concrete costs of collection maintenance.

The Bluefish Caves reanalysis is one of the most compelling demonstrations of why that abstract argument is correct.