Hoyo Negro Project Fund
The Hoyo Negro Project, part of the Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative (CHEI) at the Qualcomm Institute at UC San Diego, focuses on “engineering a future for the past.” We demonstrate that a common desire to learn from, advocate for, and preserve the past is a powerful enabler for collaboration and innovation.
CHEI shapes the field of cultural heritage engineering through an international research network that gives students access to archaeological sites, historic monuments and works of art that are at risk and in need of our immediate attention. The cenotes and underwater cave systems of the Yucatan Peninsula are one of the most promising frontiers for Paleoamerican studies.
Following the end of the last Ice Age, rising sea levels flooded the region’s underground passageways and preserved a diverse Late Pleistocene fossil assemblage. A female human skeleton named "Naia" found in the submerged subterranean pit of Hoyo Negro presents a unique opportunity for Paleoamerican and paleoenvironmental research in Quintana Roo, Mexico. At 13,000-12,000 years BP, Naia represents the oldest nearly complete individual yet found in the Americas.
Investments in the Hoyo Negro Project foster an interdisciplinary approach to research, encouraging a culture of exploration and discovery. These efforts drive technological innovation to improve diagnostic methods, analytical models and systems for documenting, analyzing and conserving historical artifacts. With tourism development on the rise, and the “Maya Train” cutting a swath through these Ice Age time-capsules, the time is now to document these amazing windows into our continent’s distant past.
Make a gift today!
Lourie Family Hoyo Negro Project Match
Join the Lourie family in supporting the Cultural Heritage Engineering Initiative's Hoyo Negro Project and work in cenote studies in Mexico and Central America. Gifts will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $50,000.* Give now to double your impact!
*Matching funds won't populate on the Triton Giving Day page, but your gift will be matched through the challenge!