By Alejandro I. López
Naia was between 15 and 17 years old when she accidentally fell into a hole while looking for water. The impact broke her pelvis and ended up killing her. Weighing around 50 kilograms (110 pounds), and measuring 150 cm (4’10”), the teenager was one of the first inhabitants of the American continent.
As a member of a nomad group, Naia had to travel great distances and probably spent a lot of time struggling to find food almost 13,000 years ago. Her family was among the ancestors of the Mayan civilization, which thrived and expanded throughout the Yucatán peninsula.
“Given the sea-level was considerably lower than it is today, ‘Naia’—a young female—must have gotten to this site, probably with torch in hand, searching for water,” says Mexico’s National Institute of History and Anthropology (INAH).
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The hole in which Naia fell over 12,000 years ago is today a cenote (a kind of natural sinkhole filled with water) known as “Hoyo Negro” (Black Hole), and it’s located in Tulum, Quintana Roo, where one of the most important Mayan walled settlements was established.
Hoyo Negro is part of a complex system of cenotes and underground caves that extends throughout the peninsula, most of which remain unexplored. After wandering through a subaquatic tunnel of over 1.5 kms (1640 yards), divers found Naia’s remains in a huge chamber, together with the skeletons of several other currently-extinct animals, including a saber-toothed cat and a previously unknown sloth species.
“This skeleton is the oldest, most complete and genetically intact human skeleton in the New World, and is considered one of the missing links that confirm some of the natives today come from those ancient groups that crossed from Siberia through Beringia (present-day Bering Strait) into the American Continent,” the INAH claims.
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Though the remains were found in 2007, it wasn’t until 2014 that the INAH officially announced the discovery. In the middle of March 2019, the INAH thoroughly presented the progress made in the “Black Hole Subaquatic Archaeological Project,” headed by archaeologist Pilar Luna.
One of the most striking features about Naia was how well-preserved her remains were. During the first incursions, divers managed to get her skull, most of her bones (except one leg), and some teeth. This makes her the single best-preserved human skeleton over 12,000 years old ever to be found in the Americas.
According to the most recent forensic analysis, Naia shows signs of old fractures in her arms, which suggests she may have suffered some kind of childhood abuse. Despite her young age, it also seems she gave birth at some point. Naia was a young teenage mother.
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The 3D model from Naia’s facial reconstruction, plus thorough mapping of the underwater cave where she was found, add to our expanding knowledge about the first inhabitants of the American continent. These findings also support the theory that these first “American” people originally came from Asia. Naia’s remains are currently kept at Mexico City’s National Anthropology Museum.
Translated by Oliver G. Alvar
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