Page 106 - AlertDiver_Summer2011_web

104 | SUMMER 2011

CAmera: Nikon D2X in Seacam housing with Superdome, two Seacam 100 strobes and a 10.5mm Nikkor fisheye lens

SEttings: 1/20 sec @ f/5.6; ISO 280

Location: Cenote El Templo, Yucatan, Mexico

F

ar beneath the Maya ruins and jungle covering Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, biologist and underwater archaeologist Arturo González inspects the skull of a human who lived in this region 8,000 to 11,000 years ago. It was an exciting moment, although stressful in that I couldn’t make any photomechanical mistakes during such an important event. Apart from that, I had to be cognizant of my own safety while working in complete darkness so far from the cave’s entrance. The human remains González and his team from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History excavated in Yucatan’s cenotes have shed new light on the early human settlement of the Americas. AD

PARTI