Without the physical reality, the mitochondrial haplogroup is just a label.

With it, the label refers to a specific man who carried that lineage in his cells while he navigated a difficult and dangerous cave by torchlight, eight thousand eight hundred years ago, for reasons we cannot fully recover.

The physical evidence gives the scientific findings their weight.

The scientific findings give the physical evidence its meaning.

Together, they constitute the story of the Hourglass Cave man — incomplete, carefully stated, honestly uncertain where it must be, but real.

As real as the cold of the cave.

As real as the darkness at the end of the passage.

As real as the torch marks that are still on the walls.