The archaeological site of Monte Verde is located in southern Chile, on a terrace of a creek 55 kilometers east of the current Pacific coastline. Discovered in 1977, the site has completely altered the way archaeologists think about the original colonization of the American continents. Monte Verde, dated to about 14,600 calendar years before the present (cal BP), is the first convincing evidence for human presence in the Americas prior to Clovis. By contrast, Clovis sites (and South America's Fishtail sites) date between 12,800-12,900 cal BP, and evidence a completely different big-game-hunting lifestyle.
Although many sites have been identified that predate Clovis occupations, most of them are problematic: either the stratigraphy was odd or the radiocarbon dates were in some ways suspect. Monte Verde came under intense scrutiny, particularly in the first few years after formal publication of its results, but thorough excavation and reporting of the site complex have resulted in a general acceptance among scholars, at least of the uppermost levels.
Based on the results of over 30 years of research, the upper levels of Monte Verde (called Monte Verde II) represents a small settlement of 20-30 people who built tents and huts, lived in one place year-round and had a very broad hunter-gatherer-fisher subsistence base. That may very well have been the typical living style of the original colonists for the Americas.
Sources and Further Information
The discovery of Monte Verde
Pre-Clovis sites
Hunter-gatherers
Dillehay, Tom D., et al. 2008 Monte Verde: Seaweed, Food, Medicine, and the Peopling of South America. Science 320:784-786.
Waters, Michael R. and Thomas W. Stafford Jr. 2007 Redefining the Age of Clovis: Implications for the Peopling of the Americas. Science 315:1122-1126.
