Without the discovery of this sinkhole, without the archaeological investigations that followed, the people buried there would be as invisible as the vast majority of ancient Texans — people who lived and died and left no recoverable trace.

The sinkhole made them visible, in however partial a way.

The excavations added them to the human record.

The analyses added them to the scientific understanding of who lived in Texas eight and seven thousand years ago.

And the reburial, at least for the Buckeye Knoll population, returned them to the ground according to a legal and ethical framework that recognized their right not to be indefinitely available for scientific inspection.

Both things — the scientific recovery and the return — are part of the full story.