Researchers Unveil Reconstructed Face of Ancient American Indian Found in Mexico Alex Ewen - Indian Country Today
go to original January 21, 2015

The reconstructed face of Naia, who was found in a sinkhole 20 miles north of Tolum. (Timothy Archibald/National Geographic)

The remains of “Naia,” the human skeleton found off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, has been reconstructed by artists to provide a hypothetical image of what she looked like. A clay model of her face was presented in the January 2015 issue of National Geographic Magazine. Naia, Greek for “water nymph,” was discovered by divers in 2007, in an underwater sinkhole called Hoyo Negro (Black Hole), about 20 miles north of the ancient Mayan city of Tolum. Believed to have been a young girl of 15 or 16, Naia apparently fell to her death in the sinkhole sometime between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago and her remains were subsequently preserved as the ocean levels rose and the cave system was flooded after the last ice-age.

The remains of Naia are the most complete ancient skeleton that have been found to date in the Americas. Mitochondrial DNA extracted from the skeleton’s wisdom tooth found it belonged to haplogroup D, found in about 11 percent of living American Indians. This has helped to settle the debate as to whether living Native Americans are descended from Paleoindians (Ancient Indians). Part of the reason there was a debate about this at all, was that early Paleoindian remains did not have Northeast Asian facial features, which was to be expected under the prevailing Bering Strait Theory of early Indian migrations which presumes Indians and Northeast Asians are closely related.

The new facial reconstruction likewise does not support an Asian relationship, as, according to the scientists who have examined Naia, “her skull has a shape associated with African or South Pacific populations rather than the typical Siberian look.” Scientists also claim the facial features do not correspond to modern American Indians, although the constant grouping of Indians - an incredibly diverse people whose diversity extends throughout the hemisphere - into one “type” is one of science’s greatest shortcomings.

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