Scientific discoveries remain one of the most extraordinary avenues for answers. A human skull discovered on a remote Antarctic beach has raised questions for four decades that remain unanswered. A study has analyzed the bones of what appears to have been a young Antarctic woman, possibly Chilean, who may have settled there before 1820. According to the study, the young woman’s death occurred between 1819 and 1825, a period before the first confirmed records of human presence in Antarctica.
How did they do it? How long were they there? Under what conditions?
This discovery represents an important advance, since given the extreme temperatures of Antarctica and the resources available at the time, the fact that a human being survived is very interesting. How did they do it? How long were they there? Under what conditions? All this follows the discovery in 1985 of a partially buried skull on Yámana Beach by Daniel Torres Navarro, a professor at the University of Chile.
After extensive research, and considering that subsequent excavations revealed more bones, such as a femur, it was confirmed that the woman could have lived between 1819 and 1825. With this information, the search for more answers continued. It all began during an expedition in January 1985, when biologist Daniel Torres Navarro of the University of Chile was working in the Cape Shirreff area collecting marine debris. The dating placed the woman’s death in the early decades of the 19th century, which has puzzled specialists given that the first documented sighting on the continent occurred in 1820.
A possibility: that the young woman died aboard a ship and was thrown into the sea
The main hypothesis is how the body ended up in the area. At the time of discovery, only part of the bone was visible, covered in greenish microalgae, a sign of its prolonged exposure to the polar environment. They also seek to determine whether the woman was part of a seal crew or other maritime expeditions operating in these latitudes, or whether the currents carried the body to this area. Another possibility considered is that the young woman died aboard a ship and was thrown into the sea, following the custom of the time.
The hypotheses, along with the data, shift much of what was understood before and what is understood now. “I would like to propose the hypothesis that, for unknown reasons, the woman could have been a member of a group of 19th-century sealers who abandoned her there,” explains Torres Navarro. In this way, one of those Polynesian legends is unearthed, claiming that there may have been inhabitants of Antarctica in the 7th century, as described in the voyages of the explorer Hui te Rangiora.
This discovery remains the oldest human record found in Antarctica
The theory, therefore, are open to all sorts of interpretations. As explained above, another of the researchers’ ideas is that the woman was thrown into the sea. “This could have caused the body to be carried by currents and storms to the beach, where it was consumed by carrion birds,” the scientist said in 1999. This idea is supported especially by the type of animals found in the area, namely: giant petrels, skuas, Dominican gulls, and white plovers. The theory is that these animals would have caused the body to separate, taking into account the passage of time, attacks by these animals, and the conditions of the body’s context.
What is clear is that Torres Navarro’s discovery remains the oldest human record found in Antarctica. A discovery that continues to raise questions and will continue to do so until similar remains are found again in Antarctica or until, in some other way, we understand what was happening in those centuries in the most inhospitable region on planet Earth.
