Monte Verde Monte Verde is an archaeological site that has been puzzling in history. Located in the low mountains of Southern Chile, it currently holds the status for being the only known pre-Clovis culture. Radiocarbon dating is the dating process that determines age of organic artifacts through properties of radiocarbon. This deterring process was the one chosen for select items on the site which predict the site’s age to be approximately 33,200 years before present. Before this, the first know American society was the Clovis culture. These people were paleo-lithic Indians estimated to have been in America around 13,200-12,900 years ago. To further understand the archaeological significance we will study the works of the veterinary student who first discovered the site, and Tom Dillehay,…show more content… The student came in 1975 to visit and witness severe erosion due to logging. Some pleasant farmers referred to as “campesisinos” showed the student a curious cow jaw bone during the visit that they had found in the Chinchihuapi Creek after it had dried up. After further research this bone was found to belong to a mammoth that strongly resembles an elephant called a mastodon. Though this is the only known findings by the student, it was enough to spark interest for an anthropologist a mere two years down the road. Tom Dillehay was not simply an anthropologist but also a professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile as well. His excavation started in 1977, where he would challenge the Clovis theory by attempting to prove otherwise with the radiocarbon dating of charcoal and the remains of bones, challenging that Monte Verde showed evidence of having an American civilization roughly 20,000 years before originally predicted. There is still no concrete proof of these dates making it not widely accepted among the population, simply high
