The development of ancient DNA science in the years since 1986 — the increasingly powerful techniques for extracting, amplifying, and sequencing ancient genetic material — has transformed what can be learned from the kinds of preserved tissues that Windover contains.

If the unexcavated portion of the pond preserves organic material at the same level as the excavated portion, future researchers with the analytical tools of their own era will be able to ask questions that Glen Doran in 1986 could not even fully frame.

Whole mitochondrial genome sequencing from ancient tissue — something that was entirely impossible in 1986 — is now routine for well-preserved ancient samples.

Nuclear genome sequencing, which would allow the reconstruction of kinship relationships within the cemetery and the comparison of the Windover population’s genetic ancestry to populations across the Americas and the world, is becoming increasingly accessible.