Researchers working on the project have applied corrections for the marine reservoir effect, but the corrections introduce additional uncertainty.

The ice itself complicates dating further.

Glacial environments are not static repositories in which objects remain exactly where they were deposited.

Ice moves.

Glaciers flow, shear, and deform the material incorporated within them.

Objects that entered the ice at one time and place can be transported to different positions within the glacier over the course of the ice’s movement, potentially mixing materials from different periods.

The scientific team working on Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi’s remains carefully analyzed the evidence for post-depositional disturbance, but the possibility that the dates of different materials reflect different histories within the ice has to be acknowledged.