Submerged wells and caves


Divers in a Cenote in Mexico © Tolanor

Underwater cultural heritage also encompasses artefacts and traces of ancient human life preserved in flooded caves, which either have always been submerged or have been flooded by the rise of the sea.

Such sites include, for instance:

  • the French Cosquer Cave, with its entry at a depth of 37 meters under water, featuring  paintings and engravings made between 27,000 and 19,000 years ago. While the entry of the cave lies deep under water, the paintings themselves are not submerged;
  • the Chichen Itza Cenote in Mexico (karst cave tunnelled into the limestone by groundwater).  The use of this cenote was exclusively sacrificial and ceremonial and remains of human sacrifices have been found.

Photogallery

Diver and human remains in a Cenote in Mexico

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

'Aktunkab', which means ’cave of the hands’, is a partially submerged cave, located in the state of Yucatan, Mexico.

The Aktunkab cave features over 300 handprints in positive and negative formats. The age of the paintings has not yet been confirmed, however ceramics found on the site were estimated to be Mayan up to 8,000 years old. © INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

Cenote - submerged carst cave in Mexico.

Diver with a human skull, discovered under water in a cave in Mexico.

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

Divers in a submerged cave, a cenote, in Mexico.

Source: Wikimedia Commons/UNESCO

Entrance of a submerged carst cave in Mexico.

© Martos/UNESCO

© Martos/UNESCO

Skeleton of a man, thought to be at least 8 000 years old, found in an underwater cave, Mexico

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

Skull of the 'woman of Muknal', dated 10,000 BC and discovered by archaeologists in a Cenote in Mexico.

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

The 'Chan hol' skeleton, found in a cave near Tulum, Mexico, is at least 13,600 years old.

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

The 'Tux kapaxa cave' in Mexico, where ancient traces of human presence and ancient fauna have been discovered under water.

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

The 'woman of Naharon', the oldest human sceletton until now discovered on the American continents, was found in a cave in Mexico. Radio carbon tests have proven that her skeleton is 11,670 years old.

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

The Cenote Calaveras, which means ‘cenote of the skulls’, is a partly submerged carst cave, located near Tulum, Mexico.

Some 118 Mayan skulls and other bones were found scattered on the bottom. An archaeologist records a skeleton in the cave. © INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

© INAH/SAS J. Avilés/UNESCO

The famous sacred cenote in Chichen Itza, Mexico.