Archaeologists found the remains of two teenagers and a baby in the cave but still do not know how they died.
The 2,500-year-old grave of three people buried with various grave goods was recently discovered inside a cave in northeastern Mexico. Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said analysis of the skeletons showed that two of the people were teenagers and one was an infant.
Additionally, researchers found remnants of baskets, textiles and fibers found with human remains, a clue that the dead may have been buried in bundles made from these materials. in the present-day Mexican state of Nuevo Léon. The remains were found in pieces and may have been ritually dismembered; however detailed bone analysis has not yet been performed.
The dead were also buried with beads made from freshwater seashells, some of which originated 186 miles (300 kilometers) east toward the Gulf of Mexico, said INAH archaeologist Moisés Valadez Moreno.
In addition, the team also revealed human remains dating to about 3,000 to 2,500 years ago, a period of time that archaeologists sometimes call the “Preclassic” period in Mexico. During this time, the peoples living in northern Mexico engaged in long-distance trade and practiced a variety of lifestyles including hunting, gathering, and farming.
The relationship between the three people found in the cave is still unclear, Valadez Moreno said bone and DNA studies would need to be done to determine this. He also noted that the close proximity of the remains and their location in the same layer of soil suggested that the three people may have died at the same time but that it was unclear how the three died, despite analyzes This may be clarified in the future.
INAH said excavations at the cave began in 2003 and about 30,000 artifacts and ecological artifacts (biological remains that humans may have used) have been discovered since that time.
