The skull of Eva of Naharon: the oldest human found anywhere in the Americas

How do we know Eva was buried?

Across the world, the most invaluable and informative ancient human remains have often been found in caves. The same is true of the American double continent.

In 2008, Arturo González led a team of underwater archaeologists through a submerged labyrinth in the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico, where they found a near-complete female skeleton, which they named Eva.

Radio-carbon dating revealed her to have died 13,600 years ago, making Eva the oldest human found anywhere in the Americas.

It seemed Eva's discovery was no chance finding: her body had been carefully placed within the cave.

But how could scientists possibly know this level of detail about something that happened 13,600 years ago? The answer is forensics.

When a person drowns, or a dead body is thrown or drops into water, it decomposes in a predictable way. For example, as a corpse decomposes it becomes bloated with gas, making it float like a buoy. After decomposition and decay continue, body parts sink, scattering in random patterns.

But Eva's remains—as well as those of seven others found within this cave system—were not scattered in random patterns at all. They remained what archaeologists call "articulated." In other words, each still resembled a human figure, suggesting they must have decomposed precisely where they lay.

Further evidence came from the cave itself.

One of the skeletons had a stalagmite—a rock formation that arises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of ceiling drippings—growing through it. Confirmation, it appears, that the cave system was not submerged when the remains were placed there.

Eva's remains were also discovered over a quarter of a mile from the nearest entrance to the cave system, strongly suggesting she was carried in.

Thousands of years later after her death, people from the classic Mayan civilization also brought their dead to Yucatán's cave systems as a final resting place.

This cultural similarity may be a coincidence, or it could suggest a direct link between the two peoples, and a future study of their DNA may be one way to confirm that link.