Loess deposits can be complex — they can be modified by frost heaving, by the activities of burrowing animals, and by other processes that can disturb the original layering.

The stratigraphic integrity of the Bluefish Caves sequence — the question of whether materials from different time periods have been mixed into the same layers by these disturbance processes — was one of the central concerns raised by critics of the original Cinq-Mars findings.

The 2017 paper addressed these concerns by focusing on the direct radiocarbon dating of the cut-marked specimens themselves, rather than relying primarily on the stratigraphic dating of the context from which they were recovered.

By dating the actual specimens that show human modification, rather than the surrounding sediment, the study reduced (though did not eliminate) the stratigraphic concerns — the date applies to the specific bone, regardless of any questions about the context.