8,000 year-old human skeleton discovered by cave divers near Tulum

A human skeleton that is believed to be over 8,000 years old has been found in an underwater cave, or cenote, near the proposed Playa del Carmen-Tulum section of the Maya Train railroad.

Speleologist and archaeologist Octavio del Río said that he and diver Peter Broger saw the skeleton under sediment in a cave system that was flooded at the end of the last ice age 8,000 years ago. The skeleton, including the skull, is broken into small pieces, del Río said.

Broger led the archaeologist to the skeleton last weekend after discovering it during a prior diving expedition.

Del Río – who has collaborated with the underwater archeology division of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) for almost three decades – told the Associated Press that the remains are at a depth of about eight meters some 500 meters from the entrance to the cave system.