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Eve of Naharon ( es, Eva de Naharon) is the
skeleton of a 20– to 25-year-old human female found in the ''Naharon'' section of the underwater cave ''Sistema Naranjal'' in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
near the town of
Tulum
Tulum (, yua, Tulu'um) is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The ruins are situated on cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Carib ...
, around south west of
Cancún
Cancún ( ), often Cancun in English (without the accent; or ) is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat ...
.
The Naranjal subsystem is a part of the larger
Sistema Ox Bel Ha
Sistema Ox Bel Ha (from Mayan meaning "Three Paths of Water"; short Ox Bel Ha) is a cave system in Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is the 2nd longest explored underwater cave in the world and ranks fourth including dry caves. As of January 2022 the surv ...
.
The skeleton is
carbon dated
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
to 13,600 years ago, which makes it one of the oldest documented human finds in the Americas.
Other skeletons found within the cave are said to be between 11,000 and 14,000 years old.
Whilst radiocarbon dating might be inaccurate due to the
marine effect, similar results have been obtained by
uranium–thorium dating
Uranium–thorium dating, also called thorium-230 dating, uranium-series disequilibrium dating or uranium-series dating, is a radiometric dating technique established in the 1960s which has been used since the 1970s to determine the age of calciu ...
.
Discovery
The remains of Eve of Naharon were discovered and reported to the
National Institute of Anthropology and History
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, c ...
(INAH) by Octavio del Río in 2000 during the archaeological exploration of Naharon, a
cenote
A cenote ( or ; ) is a natural pit cave, pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater. The regional term is specifically associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where cenotes were commonly ...
located southwest of
Cancun. The project, co-directed by Arturo Gonzales, Carmen Rojas, and Octavio del Río, was part of the first archaeological catalog of cenotes and caves in
Quintana Roo
Quintana Roo ( , ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Quintana Roo), is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, constitute the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 11 mu ...
. Later, the project grew to an archeological atlas that included all of the known cenotes in the
Yucatan Peninsula. González, director of the
Desert Museum in
Saltillo
Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...
,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
said, "We don't know how
he people whose remains were found in the cavesarrived and whether they came from the Atlantic, the jungle, or inside the continent, but we believe these finds are the oldest yet to be found in the Americas and may influence our theories of how the first people arrived." González and his team spent a total of four years excavating the remains, and their discovery raised questions as to where the first Americans may have originated.
Significance
According to Arturo González, the director of the Desert Museum in
Saltillo, Mexico
Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...
, and the lead archaeologist of this project, the bone structure of the skeleton is more consistent with that of people from
Southern Asia than that of people from
Northern Asia.
This similarity with Southern Asian skeletal types has called into question the timeline and geographic origin in the current theory of
New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
settlement by peoples from Northern Asia.
This implies that people may not have come to America from North Asia through a
land bridge
In biogeography, a land bridge is an isthmus or wider land connection between otherwise separate areas, over which animals and plants are able to cross and colonize new lands. A land bridge can be created by marine regression, in which sea leve ...
which is now underwater as previously thought,
as many scientists believe that the first peoples of America arrived by land and by sea in coast hugging canoes from Northern Asia across what is now the Bering Strait.
The first peoples filtered into the Americas from Asia in
Paleolithic times, possibly continuing to arrive until around 10,000 BCE, when melting glaciers submerged the land bridge and isolated the American continents from the rest of the world.
[Foster, L. (1997). Introduction. In A brief history of Mexico (p. 6). New York, New York: Facts on File.]
The Bering Strait theory
According to the
Bering Strait theory, people from Northeast Asia crossed on a land or ice bridge (where the
Bering Strait is today) and entered America through Alaska. This may have happened during the last Ice Age.
See also
*
Chan Hol
*
Naia (skeleton)
Naia (designated as HN5/48) is the nameHer name is derived from a type of water nymph in Greek mythology—the Naiads. given to a 12,000 – to 13,000-year-old human skeleton of a teenage female who was found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Her ...
*
Quintana Roo Speleological Survey
*
Sistema Ox Bel Ha
Sistema Ox Bel Ha (from Mayan meaning "Three Paths of Water"; short Ox Bel Ha) is a cave system in Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is the 2nd longest explored underwater cave in the world and ranks fourth including dry caves. As of January 2022 the surv ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Naharon, Eve of
Human remains (archaeological)
Oldest human remains in the Americas
Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in Mexico
Paleo-Indian period
Pre-Clovis archaeological sites in the Americas
Sistema Sac Actun and Sistema Dos Ojos
Unsolved deaths