The child was a girl.

This is a small finding in isolation — one additional fact about an individual who is already minimally characterized by a single tooth.

But it is the kind of fact that matters in a specific way.

It takes the Trail Creek child from an abstract archaeological specimen and gives her back a basic dimension of personal identity that had been completely unknown.

A girl, approximately a year to a year and a half old, in what is now northwestern Alaska, approximately 9,000 years ago.