Posted on 05/10/2020 1:06:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The first settlers of the Yucatán Peninsula built bonfires 10,000 years ago in a cave now flooded with water, studies have confirmed.
Charcoal samples from 14 prehistoric bonfires removed from the Ancestors Chamber of the Aktun Ha cenote, or natural sinkhole, in Tulum, Quintana Roo, in 2017 and 2018 were analyzed by scientists from the National Autonomous University (UNAM).
They used a range of different methods including controlled heating experiments, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and carbon dating.
The scientists determined that the bonfires were lit between 10,250 and 10,750 years ago. Corresponding to the early Holcene period - the current geological epoch which began more than 11,000 years ago after the last glacial period - the charcoal remnants of the fires are the oldest ever discovered in a Yucatán Peninsula cenote.
The scientists determined that the fires reached temperatures as high as 600 C. They ruled out any possibility that water swept the charcoal remains into the cenote cave from elsewhere.
Hunter-gatherers who lived on the Yucatán Peninsula more than 10 millennia ago may have used the Ancestors Chamber... bonfires... for both warmth and cooking.
Divers have also found stone artifacts in the cave that appear to have been used as tools such as hammers and scrapers.
(Excerpt) Read more at mexiconewsdaily.com ...
Mister Stay-Puft was probably worshipped down there.
I’ve been waiting for them to invent a wood burnin’ computer so I can save some money on electricity.
Since chocolate is native to Mexico, they were well on the way to creating S’mores. The most difficult part was solving the marshmallow matrix.
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