Archaeologists have recovered a prehistoric human skeleton from a flooded cave along Mexico’s Caribbean coast and begun analyzing the remains. The find is estimated at about 8,000 years old and likely represents a deliberate funereal placement in a now-submerged chamber. The remains were located about 26 feet (8 meters) below the surface after a roughly 656-foot (200 meters) swim through the passageways and are considered the eleventh skeleton of this kind documented in the area over the past three decades.
Based on the cave’s depth and distance from the entrance, researchers concluded the body could only have reached its resting place when the cave was dry at the end of the last ice age. The skeleton was found propped on a dune of sediments in a narrower interior chamber, a context investigators interpret as evidence of intentional placement as part of ritual practice, and the cave-diving archaeologist who participated in the recovery collaborates with the National Institute of Anthropology and History on the work, according to The Independent.
A network of sinkholes
The discovery occurred within the network of sinkhole caves known as cenotes between the resort towns of Tulum and Playa del Carmen. The region has produced some of the oldest human remains identified in North America, with earlier finds in the same system dated to around 13,000 years ago. Access to the chamber requires expert divers using specialized equipment.
Researchers said the find adds another piece to the emerging picture of early inhabitants of the Yucatán Peninsula when the landscape was a dry plain with cliffs rather than today’s jungle and beaches. Genetic studies increasingly support the idea that some early populations reached North America from Asia via a land bridge across what is now the Bering Strait, while other clues point to a possible route from South America.
Windows to the past
The team described the cenotes as archaeological windows that have also yielded later-period artifacts such as a small cannon and 19th-century rifles, and said divers continue to encounter fossils in the system that have not yet been recovered.
The hundreds of miles of subterranean rivers and chambers were significantly affected in recent years by construction of the Maya Train, a project that involved cutting jungle cover and driving support columns into some cave areas. Advocates for the region’s cultural and natural resources have pushed for stronger safeguards, and authorities are now working to designate the entire zone a national protected area.
Researchers said that beyond their ecological significance, the caves warrant preservation for their cultural heritage value, given their record of both ancient human burials and later historical objects from Mexico’s colonial and postcolonial eras. They added that continuing exploration by cave-diving specialists is expected to expand the catalog of finds once recovery efforts can proceed in newly documented passages.