The stratigraphic context still provided some information.

But the specific quantitative anchor that had made the burial so frequently cited was now under serious methodological doubt.

Paisley Caves, Oregon, by contrast, had produced extensive radiocarbon chronologies from multiple samples — coprolites (preserved feces) with ancient human DNA, charcoal, plant material — that collectively established a terminal Pleistocene occupation with high confidence.

The Paisley dates were multiply redundant, carefully pretreated with modern methods, and subject to independent verification through genetic analysis.

They could sustain the weight of chronological argument in a way that the single, potentially compromised Buhl date could not.