Underwater archaeologists working in the Yucatán Peninsula have discovered a prehistoric human skeleton deep within a flooded cave system near Tulum. The remains, found at a depth of 8 meters, are estimated to be 8,000 years old, representing some of the earliest evidence of ritualized burial in the Americas. The skeleton was found in a specific orientation within a cenote, suggesting it was part of a planned funerary tradition.
Researchers believe these submerged caves served as early shamanic portals for ancient hunter-gatherer communities. The discovery is part of an ongoing project to map the ritual landscape of the region's vast network of underground rivers, which later became sacred to the Maya civilization as passages to the underworld, Xibalba.