Pre-Columbian skeletal remains discovered in Playa del Carmen cenote

Deep successful the underground waters of a cenote successful Quintana Roo, divers person documented the skeletal remains of a young pistillate who whitethorn person lived successful pre-Columbian times, Mexican authorities revealed past week.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said custodians of the Yaakun cenote adjacent Playa del Carmen reported the find aft method divers spotted submerged materials successful precocious 2025.

The Yaakun cenote is located astir 12 kilometers from downtown Playa del Carmen. (INAH)

Within months, underwater archaeologist Gustavo García García led a five-day survey, conducted astatine depths of 42 to 53 meters (138 to 174 feet), that confirmed a clump of quality bones and, astir 30 meters away, ceramic vessels.

Preliminary investigation indicates the idiosyncratic — who has been named Yatzil — was betwixt 18 and 25 years old, based connected skeletal features and constricted dental wear.

Researchers person identified agelong bones, the pelvis, a cranium and portion of a mandible with 3 molars.

Her remains, inactive submerged successful a sloping enclosure astir 45 meters beneath the surface, are considered good preserved owed to unchangeable underwater conditions, including debased airy and temperature.

The ceramics — mostly globular pots apt utilized domestically successful the eastbound Maya portion — whitethorn day to the Late Postclassic play (1200–1521 AD), according to INAH.

However, researchers are being cautious astir assigning a precise day oregon taste affiliation to Yatzil’s remains, noting that her chronology is inactive chartless contempt the ceramics apt dating to the pre-Columbian play (before the Spanish conquest successful the aboriginal 1500s).

Underwater archaeologists besides recovered ceramic vessels astir 30 meters distant from Yatzil’s remains. (INAH)

INAH specialists accidental they volition hold for DNA from a bony scheduled to beryllium removed successful a 2nd tract league successful 2027 earlier drafting firmer conclusions.

Authorities person launched the Cenote Yaakun Research Project to papers and support the site. A perimeter has been established, and divers are urged not to disturb the materials.

Culture Minister Claudia Curiel de Icaza emphasized the value of moving with the section communities connected discoveries specified arsenic this one.

“Each archaeological find that we negociate to protect,” she said successful a property release, “strengthens our cognition astir the cultures that inhabited this territory and reaffirms that practice is simply a shared responsibility.”

The Yaakun task is the latest underwater find connected Mexico’s Caribbean coast, wherever astatine slightest 11 prehistoric skeletons were recovered successful flooded caves and cenotes betwixt Playa del Carmen and Tulum successful caller decades. One of them, reported earlier this year, whitethorn beryllium astir 8,000 years old.

With reports from Infobae and Informador