Archeologists have found an ancient human skeleton in a cave on Mexico’s Caribbean coast that was flooded 8,000 years ago during the Ice Age.
Two archeologist divers, Octavio Del Rio and Peter Broger, discovered the shattered human skull and skeleton in a cave near an area planned for construction by the Mexican government of a high-speed tourist train route.
According to Del Rio, they don’t know if the person had died in that spot or if the remains had been deposited there. They found the skeleton under deep water and far into the cave system.
The distance from the cave entrance suggests that the skeleton could be over 8,000 years old as it was near impossible for it to get there without modern diving equipment.
Some of North America’s most ancient human remains have been discovered in sinkhole caves on the Caribbean coast. According to experts, the Mexican government now is interfering with the sinkholes, also known as cenotes, with its Maya Train tourism project.
Del Rio, who previously worked on projects with the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said he reported the discovery to the Institute. He said he spoke to the Institute’s archeologist, Carmen Rojas, who told him that the Institute registered the site and that it would be further investigated by the Holocene Archaeology Project.
Del Rio fears that the cave’s proximity to where the government is preparing to construct train tracks would cause the cave to collapse or be damaged. He also fears that the building project and other developments will close the cave off.
In 2002, Del Rio was part of the team that discovered the remains famously known as The Woman of Naharon, who died at around the same time as NAIA, the almost complete skeletal remains of a woman who died around 13,000 years ago. NAIA was discovered in 2007 in a nearby cave system.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is rushing to finish the Maya Train project before his term is over in two years, in spite of objections from archeologists, environmentalists, and cave divers, which will leave the archeologists very little time to study the finds. Many of the caves along the coast have already been damaged by construction.
The Maya Train line, which is 950 miles long, will connect beach resorts and archaeological sites around the Yucatan Peninsula. The most controversial stretch of tracks will cut through the jungle between Cancun and Tulum.
At first, the Maya Train was going to be built over the coastal highway between Cancun and Tulum. President Lopez abandoned that plan after he received objections from hotel owners, and because the cost of construction and traffic interruptions became a concern.
Del Rio hopes the government will revert to the original plan and leave the jungle alone. He said that the archaeological findings are significant and should be protected. He added that the government should build the train on the highway, which was already affected by developments, according to an NBC News report.