10,000-Year-Old Prehistoric Skeleton Deemed the Oldest Specimen Discovered in Mexico

Archaeologists have recently discovered a prehistoric human skeleton in the Valley of Mexico dating back at least 10,000 years, making it the oldest specimen from the region.

Knewz.com has learned that the discovery was made during the construction of Felipe Ángeles International Airport .

Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have named the prehistoric human remains "Yotzin," which means "unique" in the Nahuatl, or Aztec, language.

According to a press release published by the INAH, the team believes that the remains belong to a hunter-gatherer male who was between 25 to 30 years old at the time of death.

While the team has yet to carbon date the prehistoric skeleton, "its characteristics are close to those of a hunter-gatherer from the late Pleistocene," per the press release.

According to Britannica , the Pleistocene epoch started around 2.5 million and ended around 11,700 years ago.

Anthropologist Arturo Talavera González carried out the first phase of the study of the specimen in the Bioarchaeology Section of the Directorate of Archaeological Salvage of INAH and found that the specimen is "closer to the first settlers of America or hunter-gatherers of the late Pleistocene, than to pre-Hispanic populations."

For instance, the "Yotzin" is around 5.74 feet in height, whereas the average height of the pre-Hispanic remains is usually 5.25 to 5.41 feet.

González also noted that "‘Yotzin’ is a robust skeleton , with a lot of bone mass," and pointed out that both the upper and lower part of the jaw have "severe wear and tear."

"‘Yotzin’ did not consume carbohydrates. The teeth had to be used as tools to work skins or fibers because the wear is marked on the first molars, right and left, and on the upper and lower canine sides," the INHA anthropologist theorized.

"If an individual presents this wear and tear without cavities, it is [identified as belonging to the preceramic age], because it can be an indicator that the denture served as a cutting and crushing tool; that is to say, to soften skins and cut vegetable fibers," he added, via the INHA press release.

Osteometry of the skeleton revealed "an elongated skull (dolicocrane), a wide jaw, rounded clusters, and ulna, poorly flattened femurs, and transverse flattening of the tibia (platicnemia)."

"Platicnemia is characteristic of primitive hunter-gatherer peoples and tended to decrease with sedentarization and agriculture," González explained.

The preliminary analysis of the specimen also showed that the late hunter-gatherer suffered from migraine and periostitis, or inflammation of the bone tissue. The team also found an "infectious process in the middle ear and frontal bone of the skull."

Regarding how old the find is, the press release noted:

"According to preliminary studies of paleoenvironment and stratigraphy, that is, from the soil layers where ‘Yotzin’ was found, made by the biologist Laura González Quintero, as well as researchers from the INAH Laboratory and Academic Support Branch, Flores Díaz and Cázares Rodríguez, the burial could be located among the records of the first settlers of the Mexico Basin."

According to Quintero, the layer in which the prehistoric human remains were found seemingly dates back to the interglacial period, around 13,000 to 20,000 years ago, making ‘Yotzin’ the oldest find of its kind from the Valley of Mexico.

Prior to this discovery, the title of the oldest prehistoric skeleton from the region belonged to the 10,500-year-old skull of a prehistoric human skull in Chimalhuacán, Mexico, discovered back in 1984.