This is the story that a piece of bone smaller than a finger segment can tell, when the right science is applied to it with patience and precision.

It is the story of an encounter between two ancient worlds.

Of a child born at the intersection of those worlds.

Of a genome preserved in bone for 90,000 years, waiting for the science that could read it.

It is one of the most extraordinary stories ever recovered from the human past.

And it was all there, waiting, in a plastic bag in a laboratory in Leipzig.

In a bone no bigger than a fingertip.