Monte Verde is an archaeological site in southern Chile, located in the northern Patagonia near Puerto Montt, Chile, which has been dated to 14,800 years BP (Before Present).[1][2] This dating adds to the evidence showing that settlement in the Americas pre-dates the Clovis culture by roughly 1000 years. This contradicts the previously accepted "Clovis first" model which holds that settlement of the Americas began after 13,500 BP. The Monte Verde findings were initially dismissed by most of the scientific community, but in recent years the evidence has become more widely accepted in some archaeological circles,[2][3] although vocal "Clovis First" advocates remain.[4] Coastal migration is a widely accepted model explaining the inhabitance of Monte Verde. Archaeological evidence shows that people arrived at Monte Verde about 1,800 years before the time that the Bering Straight Land Bridge would have become passable in 13,000 bp. This leaves traveling down the western coast of the Americas as the most plausible explanation for the earliest inhabitants of Chile. Paleoecological evidence of the coastal landscape further supports this model in its ability to sustain human life.[5]
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The site was discovered in late 1975 when a veterinary student visited the area of Monte Verde, where severe erosion was occurring due to logging. The student found a strange "cow bone" exposed in the eroded Chinchihuapi Creek that proved to be from a mastodon. 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 (58 km) 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.
Monte Verde is a well-preserved Chilean site near the Pacific Ocean that was first discovered while surveying the area in 1975. Tom Dillehay, from the University of Kentucky, first excavated the site of Monte Verde in 1977 and continued on for two decades. It was well preserved because it was found in an anaerobic bog environment near the Chinchihaupi Creek. Radiocarbon dating of bones and charcoal gave the site an average age of 12,500 years ago (calibrated), over 1300 years earlier than the oldest known site in the Americas at the time.[6][7]
In the initial excavation two large hearths were found and many smalls ones as well. The remains of local animals were found in addition to wooden posts from approximately twelve huts. This led archaeologists to assume the population was around 20-30 inhabitants. A human footprint was also found in the clay probably from a child. Inside the camp, archaeologists found a chunk of meat that still had preserved DNA. After a DNA analysis, it matched that of a mastodon, indicating the type of food the inhabitants ate.[8]
However this date was not widely accepted until 1997. It was accepted knowledge that ancient people entered the Americas using the Bering Strait, which was about 8,000 miles north. A group of 12 respected archaeologists revisited the site in 1997 and concluded that Monte Verde was indeed an inhabitation site and predated the Clovis culture. On the other hand, one of Dillehay’s colleagues, Dr. Mario Pino, believes the site is actually 33,000 years old. He believes this because about 200 meters north of Monte Verde an animal bone was found. After being radiocarbon dating it was found that the bone dated it back to 33,000 years ago.[9][10]
Material evidence gathered at Monte Verde has reshaped the way archaeologists think about the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. Radiocarbon dating has provided a date of 14,500 BP and possibly 33,000 BP, establishing Monte Verde as the oldest known site of human inhabitation in the Americas.[11]Previously, the earliest accepted site was determined to be near Clovis, New Mexico, dating between 13,500-13,000 BP, over 1,000 years later than Monte Verde.[12][13]
The new dates supplied by Monte Verde have made the site a key factor in the debate over the first migration route from Asia to North America. Before the discovery of Monte Verde, the most popular and widely accepted theory was the overland route, which speculates that the first American inhabitants migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait and then spread throughout North America. However, the early dates associated with Monte Verde work to disprove this theory. Prior to 13,000 BP, the Cordilleran Glacier (which covered much of present-day Canada) had not yet melted enough to reveal an ice-free corridor for people to reasonably journey by foot. The Monte Verde radiocarbon dates precede 13,000 BP, despite that before the glacial melt, the vast, desolate, icy landscape could not possibly have permitted enough vegetation to sustain travelling people or herded animals.[14][15]
The most prevalent theory today is the coastal migration hypothesis, which argues that people migrated from Asia down along the western coasts of North and South America.[16] Monte Verde is located 10,000 miles south of the Bering Strait. Such a considerable distance was probably unreasonable to trek by foot, especially on ice.[17]Furthermore, remains of 22 varieties of seaweed are referenced in regards to this theory. Modern native inhabitants of the regions use these particular local seaweed variances for medicinal purposes. Using an ethnographic analogy, this suggests that the Monte Verde residents used these variances for similar purposes, hinting toward an extensive knowledge of marine resources.[18][19]This in conjunction with a relative lack of stone tools suggests that these first settlers were maritime-adapted hunter-gather-fisherman, and not necessarily big-game hunters like the Clovis. Therefore, it is feasible that they traveled along the coast by boat or along the shoreline, and could survive on marine resources throughout the voyage south.[20][21]
However, migration patterns cannot be assumed from a single site. More sites like Monte Verde would need to be discovered to solidify claims of coastal migration, but this may prove difficult, as sea levels have risen nearly 200 feet, submerging possible sites.[22][23]Nevertheless, existence of such sites are supported by the presence of non-local items at Monte Verde such as plants, beach-rolled pebbles, quartz, and tar, indicating possible trade networks.[24]This remains inconclusive with current evidence.
The Monte Verde site has two distinct levels. The upper level, MV-II, has been extensively characterized. Its occupation is dated to 14,800 – 13,800 BP.
The lower level, MV-I, is less well understood. It "was more ephemeral and came from ancient river sediments. Dillehay found charcoal scatters which may be the remnants of fireplaces next to possible stone and wood artifacts, and these were dated to at least 33,000BC. He himself remains cautious about MV-I..."[25]
According to Dillehay and his team, Monte Verde II was occupied around 14,800 – 13,800 BP 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. A 13,000-yr-old specimen of the wild potato, Solanum maglia, was also found at the site; these remains, the oldest on record for any species of potato, wild or cultivated, suggest that southern Chile was of the two main centres for the evolution of Solanum tuberosum tuberosum, the common potato.[26] Remains of forty-five different edible plant species were found within the site, over a fifth of them originating from up to 150 miles (240 km) 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.
In the May 9, 2008 issue of Science, a team reported that they identified nine species of seaweed and marine algae recovered from hearths and other areas in the ancient settlement. The seaweed samples were directly dated between 14,220 to 13,980 years ago, confirming that MV-II was occupied more than 1,000 years earlier than any other reliably dated human settlements in the Americas.[27][28]
MV-I has been reported radiocarbon dated to 33,000 years before present,[29][30] but like other sites with reported extremely early dates such as the Topper site in South Carolina, this deeper layer find remains controversial.
Other very early human settlement in Southern Chile sites of comparable age to Monte Verde are the Cueva del Milodón, Pali Aike Crater lava tube[31] and Chan-Chan which is relatively close (about 200 km).