Stratigraphic and chronological analysis reveals human occupation at Monte Verde II at ~14,500 years ago, confirming an early human presence in South America.
In recent articles, Surovell et al. (Citation2026a. “A Mid-Holocene Age for Monte Verde Challenges the Timeline of Human Colonization of South America.” Science 391 (6791): 1283–1288; Surovell, Todd A., César Méndez, Juan-Luis García, Christopher Lüthgens, Jay M. Thompson, and Claudio Latorre. 2026b. “Reply to Waters et al.: Stratigraphy, Chronology, and Redeposition at Monte Verde.” Science 391 (6791): 1283–1288) and Méndez et al. (Citation2026. “Misconceptions of the Stratigraphic and Landforms Relations at Monte Verde: A Reply to Dillehay et al.” Science 391: 1283–1288) challenge the age and cultural integrity of the Monte Verde II site in south-central Chile, which is dated to approximately 14.5 ka. We demonstrate that their claims are unsupported. They contain erroneous information and methodological and interpretive flaws. We uphold the original interpretation of MV-II as a late Pleistocene human occupation.
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Dillehay et al. (2026) studied this question.
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