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Deep in since-flooded caves, researchers find evidence of America's first miners

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  perrie-halpern  •  4 years ago  •  13 comments

By:   Tom Metcalfe

Deep in since-flooded caves, researchers find evidence of America's first miners
Cave divers found signs people mined in the Yucatan more than 10,000 years ago for a valuable pigment — red ochre.

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T



Sam Meacham has spent years studying the miles of caves beneath Mexico's Yucatan region.

Although they are now flooded, most of the caves in Quintana Roo state were dry and accessible until about 8,000 years ago, when sea levels rose at the end of the last Ice Age. It was known that the ancestors of modern Native Americans ventured into the pitch-dark caves, which extend for hundreds of miles beneath the limestone landscape. Human bones have been found deep within the caves, hundreds of yards from the entrances, and archaeologists have proposed that people went there in search of fresh water or to perform rituals.

Meacham and his CINDAQ dive team had seen "weird" things in other parts of the Sagitario cave, such as signs of digging and piles of rocks, that they could not explain. Then, in 2017, Meachem was mapping a section of the cave known as La Mina, beyond a narrow part of their passage from the surface, when he encountered something that has changed how archaeologists think about the earliest peoples of the Americas.

"When we slipped through the narrow passageway to the other side … it all kind of finally fell into place for us," Meacham said.

Meacham found signs people mined there more than 10,000 years ago for a valuable pigment — red ochre — known to be used in rituals, according to research published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

The divers saw extensive evidence of red ochre mining - including pits dug in the cave floor, vivid traces of ochre, stone tools, and charcoal from fires to provide light.

The discovery makes the ancient explorers of the cave perhaps the earliest miners anywhere in the Americas.

A diver examines a navigational landmark in the now-flooded cave, left by ancient ochre miners more than 10,000 years ago.CINDAQ.ORG Let our news meet your inbox. The news and stories that matters, delivered weekday mornings. Sign Up

Red ochre is a mineral rich in iron oxides used as a red pigment by many ancient cultures.

Its color has been likened symbolically to the color of blood, and it was used in rituals for hundreds of thousands of years, especially in burials and in body paints.

It may have had medicinal uses, too, and could be used to tan hides or as a pest repellent.

"Red ochre played multiple roles within these communities," said Brandi MacDonald, an archaeologist at the University of Missouri and a lead author of the research. "It could have served both symbolic and utilitarian functions, and its uses could have changed over time."

The researchers can't tell exactly how the ochre from the Quintana Roo caves was used, but it may have been especially valuable because it is exceptionally fine-grained - "ready-made paint," MacDonald said - and has high traces of arsenic, which could have enhanced its medicinal qualities.

The ancient ochre mine was discovered in 2017 in the Sagitario cave, about 5 miles from the Caribbean coastline.

Research shows the mine dates from between 11,400 and 10,700 years ago - a few thousand years after humans arrived in the Americas from Asia - and that at least two other nearby caves were also used to mine red ochre.

"It must have been quite valuable in terms of the amount of effort to find it and [mine] it," said geoarchaeologist Eduard Reinhardt of McMaster University, a lead author who dived into La Mina to take samples from the ancient mine. "It required a lot of social organization."

A diver takes charcoal samples in the Sagitario cave in Mexico's Yucat?n region, the site of the oldest ochre mine found in the Americas.CINDAQ.ORG

Teams of at least three people carried out the mining, removing rocks and stalagmites to dig pits in the floor of the cave where the ochre deposits were found, said archaeologist James Chatters of Applied Paleoscience, another of the lead authors.

Others probably carried in firewood to keep the cave lit and carried the mined ochre outside, he said.

Some of the bones in the Quintana Roo caves appear to be from people who had lost their way.

"If you let your fire go out, 600 [yards] deep in the cave system, you're in trouble," Chatters said. "It's a labyrinth."

Archaeologist Loren Davis of Oregon State University, who was not involved in research, explained that very little evidence of early humans survives in the Yucatan.

"It is a hot, steamy jungle and things just don't preserve well there," he said. "The researchers have basically found the sweet spot where archaeological information is going to be preserved."

Anthropologist Matthew Des Lauriers at California State University, San Bernardino, said the study showed America's earliest peoples went to incredible lengths to mine ochre - an unmistakable sign that they shared the same interests as other ancient peoples.

"The pathway that our ancestors took is marked with red ochre," he said. "To find these uniquely human expressions, and at this great antiquity, in the Americas is really special."

Tom Metcalfe

Tom Metcalfe writes about science and space for NBC News.

Denise Chow contributed.


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Kavika
Professor Principal
1  Kavika     4 years ago

Another great discovery. A few years ago in an underwater cave of the coast of Yucatan, the full skeleton of a teenage girl was discovered. Dated to 13,000 years ago. 

She was named Naia.

It seems that there is a whole new world of the ancients to be discovered in the watery caves of Yucatan.

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
2  Ed-NavDoc    4 years ago

"First Face of America". Excellent documentary by NOVA in 2018.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
2.1  Kavika   replied to  Ed-NavDoc @2    4 years ago

That was a great program. 

Then the discovery of ''Montana Boy'' a full skeleton of a young boy in Montana. Dated to 12,300 years ago and the DNA verified the link between the Clovis people and present-day American Indians. 

And just a few months ago the discovery of human inhabitants in the PNW dating back over 16,000 years ago...

I love this, along with LIDAR and the discovery of long lost cities and empires makes today one of the most exciting times for anthropology and archeology. 

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
2.1.1  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Kavika @2.1    4 years ago

I have read about the "Montana Boy", or Anzick-1 as he is sometimes known, over the years since his remains were first encountered in 1968. There has been a a fair amount of controversy over the eventual disposition of the remains as well as the scientific findings. I was very glad to see the remains of the child reinterred on tribal grounds with a Native burial ritual. It was just the right thing to do.

The discovery of Naia in a flooded cenote (limestone cavern) in Southern Mexico pretty much turned the archeological community on end. Naia's genome was more a match for those ancient people passing from Asia through Beringia and ultimately made it as far South as Mexico thousands of years long before any were thought to have made it that far South, especially to Mexico.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
2.1.2  Kavika   replied to  Ed-NavDoc @2.1.1    4 years ago

Coopers Ferry in Idaho and others in Texas, Florida, Washington, and Oregon are dated well before Naia. 

These finds seem to support the ''kelp highway'' theory of many Anthropologists that they traveled viva the coastal waterway (pacific ocean) along the coastline. Some of these ancient digs are all around the coast and inland on major waterways (rivers).

This is a good read,

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
2.1.3  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Kavika @2.1.2    4 years ago

Very interesting article and a good read as you stated, my thanks. It certainly is food for though. Makes me wonder whether both hypothesis could be possible? Either way, the find of Naia's remains in that cenote in Southern Mexico is still much farther South than Florida or Texas. Still just not enough concrete evidence either way. But then, that's what a hypothesis is, is it not?

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
2.1.4  Kavika   replied to  Ed-NavDoc @2.1.3    4 years ago

Nadia was a great find and IMO actually helped confirm the evidence of the other finds since they were north and some east of her and up to 3500 years earlier. In that time frame, Naia people moved south and IMO much further and earlier than Naia and her people. 

There is a find in Peru that is 15,000 years old. It's quite possible that both hypotheses could be possible or that it is really one find with a long string to it. 

In any instance it more than fascinating and hopefully more and more will be discovered in the next few years. 

As my grandmother told me when I asked her, ''where did we come from nookomis?'' she always answered, we have always been here. 

The further the timeline gets pushed back the more accurate she was. 

 
 
 
1stwarrior
Professor Participates
2.1.5  1stwarrior  replied to  Kavika @2.1.4    4 years ago

ALWAYS believe Nookomis - ALWAYS.

 
 
 
Freefaller
Professor Quiet
2.2  Freefaller  replied to  Ed-NavDoc @2    4 years ago
First Face of America".

I'll keep an eye out for it, thanks

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
2.2.1  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Freefaller @2.2    4 years ago

It's on Netflix.

 
 
 
Freefaller
Professor Quiet
3  Freefaller    4 years ago
"The pathway that our ancestors took is marked with red ochre," 

Given the value of ochre to ancient folks I wonder if they can use the chemical composition of this find to trace out any ancient trade empire or merchant routes?

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
3.1  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Freefaller @3    4 years ago

Sounds like ocher was to the ancients what frankincense and myrrh was in in the Far and Middle East two thousand years ago.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
3.1.1  Kavika   replied to  Ed-NavDoc @3.1    4 years ago

Both red and yellow ocher was used by natives. 

 
 

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