Before the Entrance Went

More than sixty thousand fragments. Twenty-two looked like us enough to test.

ZooMS kept three. Proteins named five— two vault pieces, one forearm, two teeth, both male.

Same collagen letter in all five: R996K.

The cave was a quarry first. They pulled what they could before the entrance went.

One hundred thirty-four to one hundred sixty-seven thousand years in two layers. Tools from one hundred ninety down to seventy— no other mouth in the record between.

The radius is the first one named. Large at the top like a Neanderthal, shape further down closer to us. It does not choose a side.

The cave does not open. The five still hold the letter.