Whether similar concepts characterized the worldview of the early Holocene people of the Colorado Rockies — people who preceded the specific cultural traditions of the later Ancestral Puebloans, Utes, and other historically documented communities by thousands of years — is not established by the evidence.

But the broader pattern of human cave use, across many cultures and time periods, makes the ritual or ceremonial hypothesis for the Hourglass Cave man’s journey neither exotic nor implausible.

A person who enters a cold, dark, difficult cave more than a thousand feet from daylight, carrying a torch, alone — is doing something that most people in any culture would not do for casual reasons.

The effort required, the risk involved, and the sensory isolation of the deep cave distinguish the experience from ordinary activity.