We know this not because of his genome, but because of the stone they placed over his grave.

Everything else that the science has revealed — the age, the ancestry, the Ancient North Eurasian connection to the founding of the Americas — is built on top of that fundamental human fact.

A child was loved.

A community buried him with care.

The care preserved the evidence.

The evidence changed the story.

That is the story of Mal’ta.

That is the story of MA-1.