Zeno Swijtink
05-08-2008, 08:15 PM
https://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5...LDSlMc2uMWqLdQ
Study confirms ancient Chile settlement is 14,000 years old
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Scientists have confirmed that the famed Monte Verde archaeological site in
southern Chile is about 14,000 years old, making it the earliest known human settlement in the Americas,
the journal Science reported Thursday.
The age of Monte Verde has been the subject of controversy over the years, since estimates appeared to
conflict with other archaeological evidence related to the settlement of North America.
The new findings support not only the age of the Monte Verde site, but also the coastal migration theory
currently ascribed to by most scholars, which hypothesizes that people first entered the New World
through the Bering land bridge more than 16,000 years ago.
The study, based on the first data compiled about the Monte Verde site in about a decade, identified nine
species of seaweed and marine algae used as food by the settlement's inhabitants.
Carbon dating put the age of the seaweed samples at between 13,980 and 14,220 years old, confirming
that the site was occupied some 1,000 years earlier than any other known human settlements in the
Americas. The study appears in the May 9 issue of Science.
Discovered in 1976, Monte Verde is located in a peat bog about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of
Santiago, Chile.
Researchers say it could have supported between 20 to 30 people in a dozen huts along a small creek.
A wide variety of food has been found at the site, including extinct species of llama and an elephant-like
animal called a gomphothere, shellfish, vegetables and nuts.
https://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol320/issue5877/images/large/320_784_F1.jpeg
***
Science 9 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5877, p. 729
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ARCHAEOLOGY:
Ancient Algae Suggest Sea Route for First Americans
Michael Balter*
Evidence is rapidly accumulating that the first Americans came from Asia and spread
throughout the New World by at least 14,000 years ago (Science, 4 April, p. 37). But did they
come by land or by sea? A paper on page 784 of this issue provides some support for the
hypothesis that they took the coastal route rather than traveling inland. At the least, the
report provides strong evidence that the earliest Americans used algae and other marine
resources for food and medicine, and it seems to clinch early dates for one of archaeology's
most controversial sites.
The paper "provides a nice seaweed garnish" for the coastal hypothesis, says archaeologist
Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon, Eugene, one of its leading proponents.
Geoarchaeologist Michael Waters of Texas A&M University in College Station agrees, adding
that the coastal route allowed "for the very rapid movement of people from North to South
America."
For the past 30 years, archaeologist Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
Tennessee, and his Chilean and American co-workers have been excavating at the southern
Chilean site of Monte Verde. The site is replete with evidence of long-term occupation such as
huts, tents, and hearths and was previously radiocarbon-dated to 14,200 to 14,600 years ago.
Thus, the site has been pivotal to claims that humans arrived in the Americas before the
13,000-year-old Clovis culture, although some researchers challenged the ancient dates.
Most recently, while sifting through previously excavated sediments from hearths and floors,
the team recovered the remains of nine species of marine algae plus three stone tools. One
tool had seaweed remains on its working edge. Direct radiocarbon dates on two of the
seaweed samples both clocked in at about 14,000 years.
The new dates "remove any lingering doubts about the antiquity of human presence at that
site," says archaeologist Daniel Sandweiss of the University of Maine, Orono, who had earlier
counted himself among Monte Verde's skeptics (Science, 22 October 1999, p. 657).
Back 14,000 years ago, Monte Verde was located about 90 kilometers east of the sandy Pacific
coast and 15 kilometers north of a rocky-shored inland marine bay. Algae from both
environments were recovered, including inedible species that are today used as medicines in
Chile and elsewhere. Moreover, the algal species found are known to flourish at different times
of the year, suggesting to Dillehay's team that the Monte Verdeans were intimately familiar
with coastal resources--possibly because they had originally arrived in the region via that
route. Erlandson agrees: "The variety of seaweeds implies a pretty deep knowledge of coastal
ecosystems and a long history of exploiting them."
Yet the people of Monte Verde also consumed a wide variety of inland plants, including wild
potatoes. "There is logic on the side of a coastal route," says Sandweiss, but "it's impossible to
say as yet" whether these ancient people might have arrived overland and discovered the
bounties of the sea later. Dillehay concedes that this issue is unresolved: "Monte Verde just
raises more questions and issues," he says. "We need more data."
Study confirms ancient Chile settlement is 14,000 years old
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Scientists have confirmed that the famed Monte Verde archaeological site in
southern Chile is about 14,000 years old, making it the earliest known human settlement in the Americas,
the journal Science reported Thursday.
The age of Monte Verde has been the subject of controversy over the years, since estimates appeared to
conflict with other archaeological evidence related to the settlement of North America.
The new findings support not only the age of the Monte Verde site, but also the coastal migration theory
currently ascribed to by most scholars, which hypothesizes that people first entered the New World
through the Bering land bridge more than 16,000 years ago.
The study, based on the first data compiled about the Monte Verde site in about a decade, identified nine
species of seaweed and marine algae used as food by the settlement's inhabitants.
Carbon dating put the age of the seaweed samples at between 13,980 and 14,220 years old, confirming
that the site was occupied some 1,000 years earlier than any other known human settlements in the
Americas. The study appears in the May 9 issue of Science.
Discovered in 1976, Monte Verde is located in a peat bog about 500 miles (800 kilometers) south of
Santiago, Chile.
Researchers say it could have supported between 20 to 30 people in a dozen huts along a small creek.
A wide variety of food has been found at the site, including extinct species of llama and an elephant-like
animal called a gomphothere, shellfish, vegetables and nuts.
https://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol320/issue5877/images/large/320_784_F1.jpeg
***
Science 9 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5877, p. 729
NEWS OF THE WEEK
ARCHAEOLOGY:
Ancient Algae Suggest Sea Route for First Americans
Michael Balter*
Evidence is rapidly accumulating that the first Americans came from Asia and spread
throughout the New World by at least 14,000 years ago (Science, 4 April, p. 37). But did they
come by land or by sea? A paper on page 784 of this issue provides some support for the
hypothesis that they took the coastal route rather than traveling inland. At the least, the
report provides strong evidence that the earliest Americans used algae and other marine
resources for food and medicine, and it seems to clinch early dates for one of archaeology's
most controversial sites.
The paper "provides a nice seaweed garnish" for the coastal hypothesis, says archaeologist
Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon, Eugene, one of its leading proponents.
Geoarchaeologist Michael Waters of Texas A&M University in College Station agrees, adding
that the coastal route allowed "for the very rapid movement of people from North to South
America."
For the past 30 years, archaeologist Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville,
Tennessee, and his Chilean and American co-workers have been excavating at the southern
Chilean site of Monte Verde. The site is replete with evidence of long-term occupation such as
huts, tents, and hearths and was previously radiocarbon-dated to 14,200 to 14,600 years ago.
Thus, the site has been pivotal to claims that humans arrived in the Americas before the
13,000-year-old Clovis culture, although some researchers challenged the ancient dates.
Most recently, while sifting through previously excavated sediments from hearths and floors,
the team recovered the remains of nine species of marine algae plus three stone tools. One
tool had seaweed remains on its working edge. Direct radiocarbon dates on two of the
seaweed samples both clocked in at about 14,000 years.
The new dates "remove any lingering doubts about the antiquity of human presence at that
site," says archaeologist Daniel Sandweiss of the University of Maine, Orono, who had earlier
counted himself among Monte Verde's skeptics (Science, 22 October 1999, p. 657).
Back 14,000 years ago, Monte Verde was located about 90 kilometers east of the sandy Pacific
coast and 15 kilometers north of a rocky-shored inland marine bay. Algae from both
environments were recovered, including inedible species that are today used as medicines in
Chile and elsewhere. Moreover, the algal species found are known to flourish at different times
of the year, suggesting to Dillehay's team that the Monte Verdeans were intimately familiar
with coastal resources--possibly because they had originally arrived in the region via that
route. Erlandson agrees: "The variety of seaweeds implies a pretty deep knowledge of coastal
ecosystems and a long history of exploiting them."
Yet the people of Monte Verde also consumed a wide variety of inland plants, including wild
potatoes. "There is logic on the side of a coastal route," says Sandweiss, but "it's impossible to
say as yet" whether these ancient people might have arrived overland and discovered the
bounties of the sea later. Dillehay concedes that this issue is unresolved: "Monte Verde just
raises more questions and issues," he says. "We need more data."