A prehistoric skeleton has been found in an intricate underwater cave system along Mexico’s Caribbean coast, an area that flooded at the end of the last ice age 8,000 years ago, according to a cave-diving archaeologist who made the find with others.
Octavio del Río, who collaborates with the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said it is the 11th such skeleton found in the caves over the last three decades between the tourist destinations of Tulum and Playa del Carmen. Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in the sinkhole caves known as “cenotes,” with some earlier skeletons dating to around 13,000 years ago.
Del Río told The Associated Press this week that the skeleton was found in a flooded cave about 26 feet (8 meters) below the surface after swimming about 656 feet (200 meters) through the cave. Archaeologists recovered the skeleton in late 2025, and it is now being analyzed.
But “with the distance (from the cave entrance) and the depth … it could not have gotten there at any other time than when the cave was dry, at least 8,000 years ago,” he said. Even now, only expert divers with specialized equipment can access and work in those caves.
The skeleton was on a dune of sediments in a narrower part of an interior chamber, which “suggests that it was a funereal deposit where the body was placed intentionally, perhaps as part of a ritual practice,” Del Río said.
Even after three decades of making such discoveries, Del Río said his pulse quickened. “You can shout even under water,” he said smiling.
Del Río said you start picturing the cave, imagining how this person came to be there, thinking about the context.
Click here to read the complete, original article by Maria Verza on The Associated Press
Source: The Associated Press
