Oldest human bones in the Americas found while diving near Tulum, Mexico

The Toronto Star article "Ancient human skeleton removed from Mexican cave" published on Aug. 25 tells us about an interesting development in the studies of the movement of people across the Bering Strait to the Americas.

It was reported that an ancient skeleton was discovered four years ago by a pair of German cave divers, named Thursten, who were exploring cenotes (flooded sandstone sinkholes) in the eastern part of the Yucatan Peninsula (in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo). The bones belonged to a boy, dubbed the Young Hol Chan (named after the cenote where the finding happened). They were kept underwater in the cave, where the scientists spent three years studying them before bringing them up to the surface, until they were sure it was safe to do so. The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History is now conducting further study on them.

Archeologists dive inside the cave near Tulum, Mexico

What is known now is that the ancient remains are more than 10,000 years old and that it is among the oldest human bones ever found in the Americas.

More photos related to this news can be found in the Photo Gallery provided by the Toronto Star. And for a more detailed and thorough report on this finding, I recommend reading the page "Mexican Archaeologists Extract 10,000 Year-Old Skeleton from Flooded Cave in Quintana Roo" published by the ArtDaily.org site (which, by the way, and on a completely different note, is quite a beautiful site on all things art).