They knew something about his physical characteristics — his age, his build, the demands his life had placed on his body.

They knew the cave context in which he had been found, including the evidence of torch use that suggested deliberate deep cave penetration.

What they did not know — what no amount of skeletal analysis could reveal — was anything about his ancestry.

Which population had he come from?

What was his biological relationship to the other ancient individuals being discovered across the Americas during the same period?

And what was his relationship to the Native American communities that had been living in the Colorado region when European contact began?