It can only remind us that the question must always be asked.

The sites that have the best chance of preserving the organic fraction — waterlogged sites, dry-cave sites, specific chemical environments — deserve particular attention from the archaeological community and from the institutions and legal frameworks that govern the conduct of archaeological research.

Each wet-site excavation has the potential to reveal dimensions of the prehistoric past that the standard record cannot.

Most such sites will never be found.

Many that are found will be discovered, as Windover was, by accident — in the course of construction work or agricultural activity or natural erosion that exposes material that has been preserved beneath the surface.