The specific character of that knowledge is more limited than what would be available if the burial were still accessible — but it is not nothing.

The case also has something to teach about uncertainty itself.

In archaeological and historical research, uncertainty is often treated as a problem to be solved, as a gap to be filled.

The Buhl case suggests that uncertainty, properly understood and honestly communicated, can be more intellectually productive than false certainty.

The single radiocarbon date on the Buhl burial was treated, for more than two decades, with a confidence that was not warranted.

The 2021 reassessment corrected that, and in doing so, it improved the quality of the broader archaeological synthesis of western North American chronology.