That combination — the specificity of what we do know, and the vastness of what we cannot know — is the Hourglass Cave man’s truest legacy.

He is evidence that the past was rich with human life that left almost no trace.

He is a reminder that the archaeological record, as remarkable as it is, is a tiny fragment of the human reality it tries to represent.

He is one man, in one cave, at one moment in a story that spans tens of thousands of years and involves millions of people.

And his bones are the most specific thing we have from that particular moment, in that particular part of the world, at that particular time.