Divers in Mexico's Underwater Caves Get a Glimpse of Rarely Seen Artifacts, Fossils and Human...

The underwater caves of the Yucatán Peninsula are a window to the distant past. Through two million years and over multiple glaciation cycles, these caves have been transformed. When the sea level was high, the caves flooded, and their reach expanded.
During the ice ages, the caves dried out as the sea level dropped, and the seeping water from the surface decorated the caverns with deposits such as stalagmites and stalactites, collectively known as speleothems. Then, with the next cycle came higher sea levels again, flooding the caves and preserving in time the speleothems and everything else with them.
It’s challenging to put into words the raw and profound sensation that accompanies encountering a human skull in the darkness of the flooded caves. Long before I recognize a skull as mere remains, I can feel its gaze upon me from the shadows, a haunting presence that defies description. Particularly in the area of the Ring of Cenotes, many sacrificial cenotes hold skulls of the higher-ranking Maya families. Along with modified front teeth to host ornaments, these skulls were artificially deformed to create a physical distinction. The higher-ranking Maya used different techniques to shape their children’s skulls, creating an oblique deformation, which made their heads look longer than the average Maya’s. Said to resemble a jaguar’s head, this shape was a symbol of power. Also rare sightings for cave explorers are sophisticated Maya paintings on cave walls close to the entrances of cenotes. Depicting wars, animals, gods and stories, these treasures can be forever lost once submerged, washed away over time.