Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Undersea Cave Yields One of Oldest Skeletons in Americas
National Geographic ^ | September 14, 2010 | Ker Than

Posted on 09/15/2010 12:56:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Apparently laid to rest more than 10,000 years ago in a fiery ritual, one of the oldest skeletons in the Americas has been retrieved from an undersea cave along Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, researchers say.

Dating to a time when the now lush region was a near desert, the "Young Man of Chan Hol" may help uncover how the first Americans arrived—and who they were.

About 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Cancún, the cave system of Chan Hol—Maya for "little hole"—is like a deep gouge into the Caribbean coast.

In 2006, after entering the cave's opening, about 30 feet (10 meters) underwater, German cave divers swam more than 1,800 feet (550 meters) through dark tunnels spiked with rock formations. There they accidentally uncovered the Ice Age human's remains and notified archaeologists based in the surrounding state, Quintana Roo.

For the last three years researchers led by Arturo González, director of the Desert Museum in Saltillo, Mexico, have been studying and documenting the bones in place, so as not to lose any clues offered by context.

In late August scuba-diving researchers finally raised the bones for lab study, after having placed them in plastic bags of cave water and sealing the remains in plastic bins.

And Then There Were Four

No fewer than 10,000 years ago, Chan Hol filled with seawater as Ice Age ice caps melted, the researchers say.

No human, they conclude, could have ended up so far back in the cave system after that point—which is why they believe the young man is at least 10,000 years old. The exact age of the bones should be determined by ongoing carbon-dating tests, which should be completed in three to four months, Gonzalez said.

The newly raised skeleton is the fourth to be found in underwater caves around the town of Tulum (map). One of the other skeletons—named the Woman of Naharon, or Eve of Naharon—is thought to be even more ancient, around 12,000 years old.

At about 60 percent complete, the Young Man of Chan Hol skeleton is remarkably whole for a 10,000-year-old specimen, the researchers say. Especially revealing are his teeth—lack of wear tipped off the team to the individual's relatively young age at death.

For now, the bones have been sealed in a special chamber for the next six months to a year to dry out and to allow time for their minerals to harden, making the remains less fragile. Afterward, the bones will be scanned to create 3-D computer models that can be compared with the bones of other ancient Native American remains, project leader Gonzalez said.

American Originals

The skeletons found in the Quintana Roo caves could force scientists to rethink their ideas about the initial population of the Americas, Gonzalez said.

For example, the skulls of both the Young Man of Chan Hol and the Woman of Naharon have anatomical features that suggest their owners were descended from people of South Asia and Indonesia—not from northern Asia, like North America's other known early migrants.

(Related: "Clovis People Not First Americans, Study Shows.")

The discovery supports the idea that multiple groups of migrants may have entered North America via the Bering Strait—using the now submerged land bridge that once connected what are now Siberia and Alaska—at different times in history, Gonzalez said.

(See an interactive map of ancient human migration.)

A Different Yucatán

Today, the Yucatán Peninsula is covered by rain forests, but when the Young Man of Chan Hol lived, it was a semiarid savannah, said Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, a geologist at Heidelberg University in Germany, who was not involved in the research.

"The Yucatán surface was dry, and there were no rivers or lakes on the surface," Stinnesbeck said in an email.

Finding water and shade would have been a problem, and as a result humans may have found refuge and drinking water in subterranean caves, he added.

The caves may have also served a spiritual purpose, project leader Gonzales said.

The skeleton, he noted, was found in an unusual position—on its side, with legs bent and arms held straight along the sides of the body—suggesting the man had been purposely placed in the cave, perhaps as part of a funeral process.

"At the moment we do not know the cause of death, but considering the articulated position in which we found him, we think he was placed at this location," Gonzalez said.

The team also found evidence of bonfires inside the cavern, which could suggest that illuminating the cave was a part of the funeral ceremony, he added.

The cavern where the body was found may have been chosen as the young man's final resting place due to its rich trove of stalactites and stalagmites—rocky cones that hang from the ceiling and thrust up from the ground, respectively.

"Next to his head are a group of stalagmites that could have evoked a special resting place," Gonzalez said, "or perhaps the place to begin a journey after death."


TOPICS: History; Local News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; jacquescousteau; mayans; speleology; yucatan
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

1 posted on 09/15/2010 12:56:29 PM PDT by nickcarraway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

Obligatory Helen Thomas Pic in 4...3...2...1...


2 posted on 09/15/2010 12:57:44 PM PDT by RockinRight (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

/mark


3 posted on 09/15/2010 1:00:00 PM PDT by bamahead (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RockinRight

“The discovery supports the idea that multiple groups of migrants may have entered North America.”

It seems almost every day we hear about new groups that came here thousands of years ago. I’d suggest looking
for the street signs that controlled all of the traffic. lol


4 posted on 09/15/2010 1:05:08 PM PDT by Dem Guard (Obama's 57 States = The Organization of The Islamic Conference (OIC).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
Alas-poor-Nautilus-crewman ping.


Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

5 posted on 09/15/2010 1:08:17 PM PDT by The Comedian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

I’ve been giving my Apache wife (3/4 blood, born on the reservation) heck ever since the Clovis people turned out to be relatively recent immigrants.

So much for Native American, eh?

She took it reasonably well and then hid my sun screen and my hat when I went to the field.


6 posted on 09/15/2010 1:08:19 PM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Nothing to see here. Move along.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
subterranean caves

What other sorts of caves are there?

7 posted on 09/15/2010 1:10:37 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

“...No fewer than 10,000 years ago, Chan Hol filled with seawater as Ice Age ice caps melted, the researchers say...”

What made the ice age ice caps melt, then? /sarc


8 posted on 09/15/2010 1:14:10 PM PDT by sappy (criminallibs)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sappy
What made the ice age ice caps melt, then?

The end of the ice age.

9 posted on 09/15/2010 1:15:47 PM PDT by wideminded
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway
Today, the Yucatán Peninsula is covered by rain forests, but when the Young Man of Chan Hol lived, it was a semiarid savannah

Impossible. This implies that there was (gasp) Climate Change long before the Industrial Revolution. You must be receiving funds from Big Oil.

10 posted on 09/15/2010 1:21:12 PM PDT by hellbender
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: sappy
"What made the ice age ice caps melt, then?"

The hottness of Raquel Welch


11 posted on 09/15/2010 1:25:48 PM PDT by TheThirdRuffian (Nothing to see here. Move along.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: sappy
Mastodon flatulence?

-PJ

12 posted on 09/15/2010 1:26:12 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ("Comprehensive" reform bills only end up as incomprehensible messes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Dem Guard

Is this group kin to the kennewick man?


13 posted on 09/15/2010 1:26:36 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (The best is the enemy of the good!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: DUMBGRUNT
"Is this group kin to the kennewick man?"

They will have to check his drivers license. ;-)

14 posted on 09/15/2010 1:30:50 PM PDT by Dem Guard (Obama's 57 States = The Organization of The Islamic Conference (OIC).)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: nickcarraway

“legs bent and arms held down to the side”???
Looks like a pile of bones spit out by a shark.


15 posted on 09/15/2010 1:35:30 PM PDT by Doulos1 (Bitter Clinger Forever)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RockinRight
OOh! OOh! OOh!......
16 posted on 09/15/2010 1:46:52 PM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: sappy

don’t blame me, my tribe only drove hybrid horses


17 posted on 09/15/2010 1:53:08 PM PDT by NativeSon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: NativeSon

awesome!


18 posted on 09/15/2010 2:05:01 PM PDT by sappy (criminallibs)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: arthurus

Reminds me of pilotless drones.


19 posted on 09/15/2010 2:16:43 PM PDT by Mikey_1962 (Obama: The Affirmative Action President. He's shovel ready!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: TheThirdRuffian
Actually, her Apache ancestors were probably among the last arrivals to enter the American Southwest before the Spaniards showed up. Their own creation legends notwithstanding.

The linguistically Athab(p)askan-based tribes in the SW, including the Apaches, Navajo are relative newcomers, started arriving from way up north (their closest linguistic relatives are in northern canada and Alaska) about 1000-800 years ago and either pushed others out of what are now their lands (by force), and/or were tough and adaptable enough to occupy fringe areas that other tribes found inhospitable. Most assuredly a bloody business...

20 posted on 09/15/2010 2:20:03 PM PDT by conservativeharleyguy (Democrats: Over 60 million fooled daily!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson