How long did cane torches actually burn?

How quickly could a mussel shell scraper harvest gypsum from a cave wall?

What were the physical demands of carrying loaded gourd bowls through the cave passages?

These experiments did not produce definitive answers, but they grounded the archaeological interpretation in physical reality in ways that purely documentary analysis cannot.

The interdisciplinary nature of Watson’s approach was itself significant.

She worked with botanists, physical anthropologists, geologists, and other specialists — bringing different analytical methods to bear on the cave’s evidence.

The paleobotanical analysis of the cave’s plant remains, including the paleofeces analysis, contributed findings that went beyond cave archaeology: evidence about the diet and agricultural practices of Early Woodland communities that had implications for the understanding of prehistoric agriculture in Eastern North America more broadly.