PLoS ONE (Jan 2017)

The earliest settlers of Mesoamerica date back to the late Pleistocene.

  • Wolfgang Stinnesbeck,
  • Julia Becker,
  • Fabio Hering,
  • Eberhard Frey,
  • Arturo González González,
  • Jens Fohlmeister,
  • Sarah Stinnesbeck,
  • Norbert Frank,
  • Alejandro Terrazas Mata,
  • Martha Elena Benavente,
  • Jerónimo Avilés Olguín,
  • Eugenio Aceves Núñez,
  • Patrick Zell,
  • Michael Deininger

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183345
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 8
p. e0183345

Abstract

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Preceramic human skeletal remains preserved in submerged caves near Tulum in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, reveal conflicting results regarding 14C dating. Here we use U-series techniques for dating a stalagmite overgrowing the pelvis of a human skeleton discovered in the submerged Chan Hol cave. The oldest closed system U/Th age comes from around 21 mm above the pelvis defining the terminus ante quem for the pelvis to 11311±370 y BP. However, the skeleton might be considerable older, probably as old as 13 ky BP as indicated by the speleothem stable isotope data. The Chan Hol individual confirms a late Pleistocene settling of Mesoamerica and represents one of the oldest human osteological remains in America.