She lived about 10,000 years ago, in what's now the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, on the Yucatan Peninsula. Back then, the sea level was considerably lower, and the region's complex cave systems were largely high and dry. As the waters rose, most of the caves were flooded.
It's there, in a lightless, watery resting place, that she has waited to tell her story. Her bones preserve evidence of disease and trauma, as well as a diet rich in sugar. Known to science as Chan Hol 3, the woman reveals new details about life for some of the region's earliest residents — and raises new questions about who those people were.
