They do not tell us what he was thinking.

The continued engagement with the question — the honest acknowledgment that it is unanswerable with current evidence — is itself a form of respect for the complexity of ancient human life.

Early people were not simple.

They were not driven only by the need for food, water, and shelter.

They had beliefs, practices, motivations, and intentions that are part of who they were as fully human beings.

The question of why the Hourglass Cave man entered the cave is the question of what was in his mind, and that question is the most human question his story raises.