Monte Verde

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This article is about the site in Chile. For the mountain in Brazil, see Mantiqueira Mountains.

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Monte Verde is an archaeological site in south-central Chile, which has been dated to 14,500 years before present.^[1] It pre-dates the earliest known Clovis culture site of Clovis, New Mexico, by 1000 years, contradicting the previously accepted "Clovis model" which holds that settlement of the Americas began after 13,500 years before present. As such the Monte Verde findings were initially dismissed by most of the scientific community, but in recent years the evidence has been widely accepted^[2]^[3], although vocal "Clovis-first" advocates remain^[4]. Models of a coastal migration from Siberia along the west coast of the Americas, slightly predating Clovis, are now commonplace^[5], in large part due to the Monte Verde evidence.

Another layer at Monte Verde has been allegedly radiocarbon dated to 33,000 years before present^[6], but like other sites with reported extremely early dates such as the Topper site in South Carolina, this finding remains radically controversial.

The site was discovered in late 1975 when a veterinary student visited the area of Monte Verde and found a strange "cow bone" that proved to be from a mastodont. Mario Pino, a Chilean geologist and Tom Dillehay, both teachers at the Universidad Austral de Chile at the time, started excavating Monte Verde in 1977. The site is situated on the banks of Chinchihuapi Creek, a tributary of the Maullín River located 36 miles from the Pacific Ocean. One of the rare open-air prehistoric sites found so far in the Americas, Monte Verde was preserved as the waters of the creek rose a short time after the site was occupied and the peat-filled bog that resulted inhibited the bacterial decay of organic material and preserved many perishable artifacts and other items for millennia.

According to Dillehay and his team, the site was occupied around 12,800 – 11,800 B.C. by about twenty to thirty people. A twenty-foot-long tent-like structure of wood and animal hides was erected on the banks of the creek and was framed with logs and planks staked in the ground, making walls of poles covered with animal hides. Using ropes made of local reeds, the hides were tied to the poles creating separate living quarters within the main structure. Outside the tent-like structure, two large hearths had been built for community usage, most probably for tool making and craftwork.

Each of the living quarters had a brazier pit lined with clay. Around those hearths, many stone tools and remnants of spilled seeds, nuts, and berries were found. Remains of forty-five different edible plant species were found within the site, over a fifth of them originating from up to 150 miles away. This suggested that the people of Monte Verde either had trade routes or traveled regularly in this extended network.

Other important finds from this site include human coprolites, a footprint, assumed to have been made by a child, stone tools, and cordage. The date for this site was obtained by Dr. Dillehay with the use of radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone found within the site.