Who traveled.

Who moved across landscapes that were vast and often dangerous, crossing the distances between the coast and the interior, between the river valleys and the uplands.

Who encountered other people, traded with them, perhaps married among them, perhaps fought with them.

Who grew old.

Whose joints ached.

Whose body, like all bodies, began to fail.

Who died.

Who was buried — whether by loving hands or by the slow accumulation of time — beside the river that his descendants would still be fishing thousands of years later.

He did not know that his bones would be found.

He did not know that his discovery would trigger a national controversy.