Paleoindian ochre mines in the submerged caves of the Yucatán Peninsula, Quintana Roo, Mexico
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Science Advances
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By the end of the Pleistocene, humans had migrated to and inhabited the area of Quintana Roo, located on the eastern Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. This karstic landscape is characterized by a large limestone platform punctuated by a now-submerged system of caves. The cave systems were dry and accessible from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) until the middle Holocene transition {>13,000 to 8000 calibrated years before present (cal B.P.) [9 to 8 thousand years (ka)]}, after which time most of the caves flooded during sea-level rise, resulting in a unique and well-preserved paleorecord.
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