A mid-Holocene age for Monte Verde challenges the timeline of human colonization of South America

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Surovell, Todd A.; Mendez, Cesar; Garcia, Juan-Luis; Luethgens, Christopher; Thompson, Jay M.; Latorre, Claudio
• 署名单位: University of Wyoming; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile; BOKU University; United States Department of the Interior; United States Geological Survey; Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adw9217
• 发表日期: 2026-03-19
• 页码: 1283-1288
• 关键词: PATAGONIAN ICE-SHEET; LAKE DISTRICT; LLANQUIHUE DRIFT; LEPUE TEPHRA; luminescence; chile; single; population; sediments; IRSL

摘要

Our understanding of the timing of the human colonization of South America has been anchored by the Monte Verde II site in Chile, reported to date to similar to 14,500 years before the present (B.P.) and regarded as one of the most secure pre-Clovis archeological sites. We report the first independent investigation of Monte Verde in the nearly 50 years since initial excavations. We argue that radiocarbon and luminescence dates from alluvial exposures, in combination with the identification of a tephra dated to 11,000 years B.P. stratigraphically underlying the archaeological component, suggest that Monte Verde cannot be older than the Middle Holocene (8200 to 4200 years B.P.). With colonization no longer anchored by Monte Verde, our revised chronology supports a more recent date of human arrival to South America.