I am perfectly willing to believe that some poor schmuck was wrapped in the shroud... the who and the why is far less clear.

For a very long period of time, every ancient hominid discovery was touted as THE "missing link" or earliest ancestor. Seems to be human nature to want credit for something unique. Alistair Anderson used to quip that he was the second greatest concertina player, since there were some many already claiming to be in first place. So claims as to the identity of the poor victim are on very shaky ground.

I find myself very curious as to whether or not intact DNA could be recovered just to see what it might match up to. And not becasue I think a "virgin birth" would mean we would find XX chromosomes or some other nonsense. Just to get a sense of what ancestry that poor guy had.