US EditionPrehistoric skeleton discovered in flooded cave along Mexico’s Caribbean coast
The skeleton was found 26 feet underwater in a Yucatán cave and may represent a ritual burial, with 11 similar finds recorded in the area over 30 years, experts said.
- Cave-Diving archaeologist Octavio del Río and colleagues recovered a prehistoric human skeleton in late 2025 from a flooded cave system in Actun near Tulum, Mexico, now under analysis.
- Because of the cave's depth and distance, experts date the burial to at least 8,000 years ago, as the interior chamber was dry when the body was placed there and the skeleton rested on a sediment dune suggesting an intentional funerary deposit.
- Found about 26 feet below the surface, the skeleton required a 656-foot swim through the flooded cave, accessible only to expert cave divers with specialized equipment.
- Authorities and ecologists are pressing to designate the cave zone as a national protected area, with the Environment Ministry aiming for that in 2026, and INAH officials argue it should be protected for its cultural heritage.
- Amid Maya Train construction, experts warn the caves have been severely impacted, with jungle cleared and support columns driven into the region's hundreds of miles of underwater rivers and cave systems.
23 Articles
23 Articles
A prehistoric skeleton was found in an intricate system of underwater caves along the Caribbean coast of Mexico, an area that flooded at the end of the last ice age 8,000 years ago, according to an archaeologist cave diver who made the discovery along with others. Octavio del Río, a collaborator of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, stated that this is the eleventh skeleton of this type found in the caves in the last three decad…
A new prehistoric skeleton has been located in the intricate system of kilometers of caves, underground rivers or cenotes that traverse the subsoil of the Mexican Caribbean coast and flooded towards the end of the last glaciation, 8,000 years ago, announced the underwater archaeologist Octavio del Río, who works in collaboration with the National Institute of Archaeology and History (INAH) of Mexico.
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