But the questions themselves are worth asking — because understanding where we come from, and who was here before us, is part of understanding who we are.

The sinkholes are still there.

The limestone keeps its record.

The ancient Texans, placed in the dark by people who loved them and believed the dark would carry them somewhere, are still waiting to be fully known.

The Technology That Changed Everything — And The New Questions It Raises

Ancient DNA science has transformed the study of human prehistory so rapidly and so thoroughly that it is sometimes called a revolution — a genuine paradigm shift in what can be known about the deep human past.

For most of the history of archaeology, the only evidence available about ancient populations was what could be observed directly: the bones themselves, the artifacts associated with them, the contextual information preserved in the sediments.