Prehistoric human skeleton present in Mexican cave flooded at finish of final ice age

A prehistoric human skeleton has been present in a cave system that was flooded on the finish of the final ice age 8,000 years in the past, in line with a cave-diving archaeologist on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.

Octavio del Rio stated he and fellow diver Peter Broger noticed the shattered cranium and skeleton partly lined by sediment in a cave close to the place the Mexican authorities plans to construct a high-speed vacationer prepare by means of the jungle.

Given the space from the cave entrance, the skeleton couldn’t have gotten there with out trendy diving gear so have to be over 8,000 years outdated, Del Rio stated, referring to the period when rising sea ranges flooded the caves.

“There it’s. We don’t know if the physique was deposited there or if that was the place this particular person died,” stated Del Rio.

He stated the skeleton was situated about 26 ft underwater, about one third of a mile into the cave system.

Among the oldest human stays in North America have been found within the sinkhole caves referred to as cenotes on the nation’s Caribbean coast, and consultants say a few of these caves are threatened by the Mexican authorities’s Maya Practice tourism undertaking.

Del Rio, who has labored with the Nationwide Institute of Anthropology and Historical past on tasks prior to now, stated he has notified the institute of the invention.

The institute didn’t instantly reply to questions on whether or not it intends to discover the location.

However Del Rio stated on Tuesday that institute archaeologist Carmen Rojas advised him the location is registered and shall be investigated by the institute’s Quintana Roo state department Holocene Archaeology Venture.

He stated the cave — whose location he didn’t reveal due to a concern the location might be looted or disturbed — was close to the place the federal government has lower down a swath of jungle to put prepare tracks, and might be collapsed, contaminated or closed off by the constructing undertaking and subsequent growth.

“There may be much more examine that needs to be completed to be able to accurately interpret” the discover, Del Rio stated, noting that “relationship, some type of photographic research and a few assortment” can be wanted to find out precisely how outdated the skeleton is.

Del Rio has been exploring the area for 3 a long time and, in 2002, he participated within the discovery and cataloguing of stays referred to as The Girl of Naharon, who died across the identical time, or maybe earlier, than Naia — the almost full skeleton of a younger girl who died round 13,000 years in the past.

It was found in a close-by cave system in 2007.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is racing to complete his Maya Practice undertaking within the remaining two years of his time period over the objections of environmentalists, cave divers and archaeologists.

They are saying his haste will enable little time to check the traditional stays.

Activists say the heavy, high-speed rail undertaking will fragment the coastal jungle and sometimes run above the delicate limestone caves, which — as a result of they’re flooded, twisty and sometimes extremely slender — can take a long time to discover.

Caves alongside a part of the coast have already been broken by development above them, with cement pilings used to assist the load above.

The 950-mile Maya Practice line is supposed to run in a tough loop across the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting seashore resorts and archaeological websites.

Probably the most controversial stretch cuts a greater than 68-mile swath by means of the jungle between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum.

Del Rio stated the route by means of the jungle ought to be deserted and the prepare ought to be constructed over the already-impacted coastal freeway between Cancun and Tulum, as was initially deliberate.

Lopez Obrador deserted the freeway route after lodge homeowners voiced objections and value and site visitors interruptions turned a priority.

“What we wish is for them to alter to route at this spot, due to the archaeological finds which have been made there, and their significance,” stated Del Rio.

“They need to take the prepare away from there and put it the place they stated they had been going to construct earlier than, on the freeway … an space that has already been affected, devastated.”