1. The earliest settlers of Mesoamerica date back to the late Pleistocene.
- Author
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Stinnesbeck, Wolfgang, Becker, Julia, Hering, Fabio, Frey, Eberhard, González, Arturo González, Fohlmeister, Jens, Stinnesbeck, Sarah, Frank, Norbert, Terrazas Mata, Alejandro, Benavente, Martha Elena, Avilés Olguín, Jerónimo, Aceves Núñez, Eugenio, Zell, Patrick, and Deininger, Michael
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PLEISTOCENE Epoch , *QUATERNARY Period , *CALABRIAN Stage , *HUMAN body - Abstract
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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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