At least 8,000 years ago, the sea level on the Yucatán Peninsula was between 20 and 30 meters lower than it is today, and many of its inhabitants lived in caves that are now submerged. Now, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has recovered skeletal remains from one of these caves that could reveal information about how those people lived.
The remains are part of the skeleton of a male, reported in 2022 and recovered in late 2025 from the Sac Actun underground river system in Quintana Roo, one of the largest in the world.
The bones, which include a female skull, were taken to the Bioarchaeology Section of the Archaeological Salvage Directorate of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), where they will be studied.
Archaeologist Luis Alberto Martos López reported that the skeleton was located at the bottom of a cenote, 200 meters from the entrance and eight meters deep, in a small chamber behind a speleothem (a mineral formation that developed after the cave’s formation).
A significant amount of charcoal was also found. “It appears there were hearths, which indicates that the cave was active and that, probably, when this person died, the chamber was used as a natural burial crypt, which speaks to certain beliefs and funerary rites,” Martos López said in a statement from the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History).
The archaeologist points out that, between eight and ten thousand years ago, the Yucatán Peninsula was a vast grassland with shrubs, grasses, few trees, and megafauna, so caves served as shelters for the first inhabitants.
Martos López notes that the female skull was located near another of the cenote’s entrances, at a shallow depth.
The pieces arrived packaged in airtight boxes to protect their preservation and prevent any contamination. They were delivered to physical anthropologist Arturo Talavera González, who will lead the bioarchaeological analyses and studies.
Based on preliminary observations, including the angle of the mastoid process and the thickening of the frontal bone above the eye sockets, the anthropologist determined that the individual was male. From the long bones, he estimates a height of approximately 1.45 to 1.50 meters.
He adds that the individual was of very slender build and was likely between 20 and 25 years old at the time of death.
The specialist estimates that 40% of the skeleton was recovered, including parts of the skull, some ribs and vertebrae, the clavicles, the right scapula, fragments of the coccyx, and long bones from the upper and lower extremities. The remains are in fair condition, so a consolidation process has begun before they can be handled for study.
Talavera González adds that the female skull, recovered during the same exploration, belonged to a woman between 35 and 45 years old at the time of her death, and that she had suffered from malnutrition; although the jawbone is present, it is missing teeth.
The project, approved by the INAH Archaeology Council in 2025, is directed by Octavio del Río Lara and Gustavo García García, an archaeologist with the Subdirectorate of Underwater Archaeology.
A multidisciplinary team participated in the discovery and extraction, which can be viewed on YouTube. The team included hydrogeologist Emiliano Monroy, molecular biologist Víctor Moreno, engineer Guillermo D’Christy, underwater explorer Peter Broger, and instructor Eugenio Acevez, with funding from the Canadian production company Barbara Hager.
Source: latinus.us
