The general pattern that emerges from this body of evidence is of human use of the high country extending back several thousand years, with the intensity and frequency of that use varying with the specific environmental and cultural conditions of different periods.

Sites above 10,000 feet — comparable in elevation to Hourglass Cave — have produced radiocarbon dates extending back roughly 6,000 to 8,000 years in some locations, though the specific dating and context vary by site.

The Hourglass Cave man, at approximately 8,800 calibrated years, is at or near the upper end of the dated record for high-altitude human presence in the Colorado Rockies.

This positioning — among the earliest well-dated humans from this elevation range — contributes to the site’s significance.