Underwater archaeologist Octavio Del Rio has found 8,000-year-old human remains in an underwater cave in Mexico.
The find occurred in a cave that flooded during the last ice age, and the prehistoric skeleton was located at a relatively shallow depth of 26ft/~8m.
Del Rio has not disclosed the location of the cave containing the body for fear it may be disturbed or looted. However, he did state that it is close to Tulum, in an area of jungle cleared by the government to lay railroad tracks.
Commenting on the find, Del Rio, who has been exploring the area for three decades, told the Reforma newspaper:
“We don’t yet know the sex or the size [of the person], how much he or she weighed, whether the person had a disease. We don’t know how he or she died.”
He also criticized development of the new train route going through the area:
“What we want is for them to change to route at this spot, because of the archaeological finds that have been made there, and their importance…They should take the train away from there and put it where they said they were going to build before, on the highway, … an area that has already been affected.”
Interestingly, this is not Del Rio’s first rodeo with underwater skeletons. In 2002, he participated in the discovery of “The Woman of Naharon” skeleton, which was an almost complete 13,000-year-old skeleton.
You can check out a video of the find below.
