The remains of Eve of Naharon were discovered and reported to the
National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) by Octavio del Río in 2000 during the archaeological exploration of Naharon, a
cenote located southwest of
Cancun. The project, co-directed by Arturo Gonzales, Carmen Rojas, and Octavio del Río, was part of the first archaeological catalog of cenotes and caves in
Quintana Roo. Later, the project grew to an archeological atlas that included all of the known cenotes in the
Yucatan Peninsula. González, director of the
Desert Museum in
Saltillo,
Mexico said, "We don't know how [the people whose remains were found in the caves] arrived and whether they came from the Atlantic, the jungle, or inside the continent, but we believe these finds are the oldest yet to be found in the Americas and may influence our theories of how the first people arrived." González and his team spent a total of four years excavating the remains, and their discovery raised questions as to where the first Americans may have originated. ==Significance==