The Upper Paleolithic was the age of stone tools, and the relationship between human beings and lithic material runs through the entire history of the species from its earliest origins.

But stone is also, in the geological sense, the foundation on which all of human history is inscribed.

The stone over the child’s grave has been moved.

But the child’s genome — extracted from the bones the stone helped to preserve — is now part of the permanent scientific record.

Stored in databases, published in journals, incorporated into the models that researchers use to understand the population history of Eurasia and the Americas.

In a sense more lasting than any physical stone, the genome of MA-1 now has a kind of permanence — it will be analyzed and reanalyzed as methods improve, will serve as a reference point for future studies of ancient human populations, will be part of the evidence base for understanding the peopling of the Americas for as long as researchers continue to work on that question.