They are the genuine limits of what material evidence can tell us about an individual life from centuries past.

And they are worth stating clearly, because the temptation — in both scientific reporting and popular accounts — is to fill in the blanks with plausible-sounding reconstruction that exceeds what the evidence actually supports.

Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi was a specific person with a specific life — relationships, memories, knowledge, fears, loves, responsibilities, and a history that extended far beyond the moment his body was preserved in the ice.

Almost none of that is recoverable.