Monte Verde

Monte Verde is an archaeological site in south-central Chile , southwest of Puerto Montt . It is one of the oldest traces of human settlement on the American continent . A ¹⁴ C dating to about 12,000–14,000 years Before Present is considered certain, but the excavators also claim to have found human traces in 30,000 year old charred wood. Even the secured age shifts the beginning of the colonization of America by Paleo-Indians before the traditionally assumed beginning of the Clovis culture from 11,000 BP, the assumptions going beyond this cannot be reconciled with the doctrine of the settlement history.

Monte Verde was proposed in 2004 by the government of Chile for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List .

Discovery and Finding

The excavations of Monte Verde began in 1977 by Mario Pino and Tom Dillehay from the Universidad Austral de Chile and were published by Dillehay in 1986/88. The excavation site is about 58 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean on the banks of the Chinchihuapi River, a tributary of the Rio Maullín . As one of the few open-air prehistoric sites found in America to date, Monte Verde was preserved when the river's water rose soon after the site was settled and the resulting bog prevented organic material from decaying. So were artifacts (eg. B. Objects) preserved for millennia.

According to Dillehay the locality was populated by about 20 to 30 people living space . A tent-like structure over six meters long was erected on the banks of the river and framed with logs and planks rammed into the ground. The walls were made of stakes and covered with animal skins . More skins were lashed to the posts with reed ropes to create separate living spaces. Outside the tent-like structure were two large hearths for communal use, probably for tool making and handicrafts. Each of the living rooms also had a fireplace surrounded by clay. Many stone tools and remains of spilled seeds , nuts and berries have been found around this herd . Remains of forty-five different edible plant species were found in the settlement, over a fifth of them came from a distance of over 150 miles. This suggested that the people of Monte Verde regularly roamed the area as hunter-gatherers or had contact with other groups who lived near these resources. Among the animal materials were the bones of mastodons that inhabited the Valdivian rainforest , which was then large in the coastal area .

Other finds from this site include human coprolites , a footprint (presumably from a child) and possibly plant fiber used as construction material. The age of the excavation site was determined by radiocarbon dating from found charcoal and bones.

debate

The finds and their interpretation were criticized in the professional world from the start. In 1991, Brian Fagan did not consider it certain that Dillehay had even provided evidence of human residence in Monte Verde; the findings could also be explained by biological / physical effects. In 1999, Stuart Fidel published an extensive examination of Dillhay's publications and showed him numerous errors. After extensive debates, a mediating position prevailed that recognized Monte Verde as one of the oldest sites of human settlement in America and before Clovis. The assumption that the Chilean coast was settled by boat across the Pacific Ocean 25,000–30,000 years ago and thus an alternative to the theory of the settlement of America via the Beringia land bridge between Siberia and Alaska at the end of the last Ice Age is sporadic, but not generally accepted.