Mayan Underwater Tunnels With Bones Of Humans, Elephant-Like Creatures, Tigers, Bears, Tigers And Extinct Horses, Rediscovered In Yucatan

AncientPages.com - For the first time in thousands of years, sacred Mayan underwater tunnels in Mexico's Yucatan are being rediscovered, say researchers from Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH).

In the tunnel-like caves, INAH researchers have discovered human bones, and the bones of elephant-like creatures, giant sloths, bears, tigers, and extinct species of horses, now-extinct plants and Maya pottery.

The caves measure from 400 feet to just three feet.

A scuba diver looks at an animal skull at Sac Aktun underwater cave system during exploration as part of the Gran Acuifero Maya Project near Tulum, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico February 12, 2014. (Jan Arild Aaserud/Courtesy Gran Acuifero Maya Project [GAM]/Handout via REUTERS)

A scuba diver looks at an animal skull at Sac Aktun underwater cave system during exploration as part of the Gran Acuifero Maya Project near Tulum, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico February 12, 2014. (Jan Arild Aaserud/Courtesy Gran Acuifero Maya Project [GAM]/Handout via REUTERS)

“This immense cave represents the most important submerged archaeological site in the world,” said Guillermo de Anda, director of the INAH study.

However, it is not yet determined how the Maya artifacts came to rest in the caves. The team is now exploring an extensive network of limestone caves housing numerous Mayan artefacts and their discovery will shed light on many mysteries of ancient Maya.

A route through underwater limestone caves connecting the Sac Actun cenote and the Dos Ojos cenote represents a remarkable underwater system, measuring more than 340km in length.

Underwater caves Tulum cenotes

They connects these two previously known cenotes (in Spanish:'giant sinkhole aquifers') near Tulum, in the state of Quintana Roo, reports Telesur.

Researchers say that highly preserved ceramic vases dated to Mayan society would have been used in funerals and during ritual sacrifices.

According to Maya beliefs, cenotes were considered the third level of the universe, after the heavens and Earth. This belief was an important part of Maya religion widespread in what is now Mexico's Yucatan, along with the Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

A scuba diver looks at an animal skull at Sac Aktun underwater cave system during exploration as part of the Gran Acuifero Maya Project near Tulum, in Quintana Roo state, Mexico February 12, 2014. (Jan Arild Aaserud/Courtesy Gran Acuifero Maya Project [GAM]/Handout via REUTERS)

Cenotes are "a very powerful, magical space where the supernatural reigned, where gods and goddesses lived, where the good and bad co-existed, where man came from," says Anda. "It's a tunnel of time that transports you to a place 10,000 to 12,000 years ago."

See also:

Ancient Tomb Of Maya Ruler Te’ Chan Ahk Discovered In Guatemala

Ancient Maya Astronomers Predicted Meteor Showers 2 Millennia Ago – Mayan Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Reveal

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Efforts to locate the tunnel began more than 14 years ago, headed by lead diver Robert Schmittner, who had spent 20 years trying to find a direct connection between the Sac Actun cenote in the south of the state and Dos Ojos cenote toward the north. Schmittner and INAH researchers began their focused investigation 10 months ago and only recently discovered the underwater route connecting the two cenotes.

"It was like trying to follow the veins within a body," says the diver. "It was a labyrinth of paths that sometimes came together and sometimes separated. We had to be very careful."

At certain points, the tunnel shrinks from 120 meters in width to just one meter.

Original story - here.

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