This kind of systematic survey is how the detailed maps of cave systems are built, and it is exactly the kind of activity that might reveal archaeological material in passages that had not been previously visited.

The 1988 cavers were not the first modern people to enter Hourglass Cave.

The cave had presumably been visited before the systematic survey, as caves in accessible mountain terrain often are.

But the deep section where the bones were found — far enough from the entrance to require sustained travel through difficult terrain — had apparently not been previously mapped, or the human remains would presumably have been reported earlier.

The cave’s character as a significant, complex system that required systematic exploration to fully map is relevant to understanding the ancient man’s presence in it.