Oldest Skeleton in Americas Found in Underwater Cave?

Basic Information

September 3, 2008: Archaeologists have discovered the oldest human skeleton in the Americas in an underwater cave close to Cancún, Mexico in the Yucatán Peninsula. The skeleton - of a female - is estimated to be around 13,600 years old. This find is expected to increase understanding of the first humans living in the Americans. Several other skeletons of similar ages have been found as well.

Sources

Bibliography

1. Original article

Game and Story Use

• Defiling the resting places of the dead is often said to bring a curse. Will a skeleton of that age trigger a particularly powerful curse?
  • Causing her to rise as a ghost or other undead creature is also an obvious plot.
• Some people claim that the Americas were originally colonized from Atlantis. If so, examining her grave and remains could give hints to that effect.
• Even the fallout of the skeleton being found to be … not entirely human¹ … might be highly significant.
• For a more mundane campaign, there is occasionally conflict between Amerindian communities and archaeologists over pre-Columbian remains, even those which might pre-date the arrival of the pre-Columbian population².

Footnotes

1. One of Lovecraft's favourite tropes was the civilisation of Serpent People preceeding humanity in all sorts of places.

2. Often because the archaeological record conflicts with traditional Amerindian Creationist beliefs and/or the Amerindian communities regard the current paradigm of multiple waves of settlement a strategy to "de-legitimise" their historical claims to the continent.