The age of approximately 8,800 calibrated calendar years makes the Hourglass Cave man one of the oldest well-dated human remains from the Rocky Mountain region and one of the more important early individuals from the interior of North America.

He predates the founding of the oldest cities in the world — the first urban centers of Mesopotamia and Egypt did not appear until roughly 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.

He predates the invention of writing by more than 3,000 years.

He lived at a time when the human occupation of the Americas was still in its early stages — when the continent was sparsely populated by highly mobile hunter-gatherer communities whose lifeways and movements were still determining the patterns of human settlement that would persist for millennia.

At 8,800 calendar years, he is not among the oldest ancient humans yet recovered from North America.