Abstract
Over the past several decades a heated debate and gradual Kuhnian-like paradigm shift has been taking place in American archaeology that relates to the initial peopling of the western hemisphere. The central role of the Monte Verde archaeological site in Chile in the debate and paradigm change and the obstacles to its eventual acceptance are discussed. Monte Verde is a unique site that radiocarbon dated at least 1500 years earlier than expected and exhibited a wide array of organic cultural materials that revealed extraordinary details of the economy, technology and lifestyle of early Americans in southern South America during the late Pleistocene era. The uniqueness of the site and its age made it controversial and prolonged its final acceptance.
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Acknowledgements
I thank the many colleagues, especially Mario Pino, the project geologist, who worked with me for many years at Monte Verde. I also am grateful to those individuals, such as Jose Saavedra and the late Carlos Ocampo, who also worked many field seasons at the site, and Eduardo Alvar, who have continued to logistically support the research and made great efforts to establish the Museo Monte Verde in Puerto Montt. Local residents of Monte Verde have been very generous and supportive of our work, and we thank them for their friendship and cooperation. Lastly, I also thank the institutions and individuals that supported the research at the site: the Universidad Austral de Chile, the University of Kentucky, reluctantly the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Kohler Foundation, Vanderbilt University, the Rebecca Webb Wilson family, the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales of Chile, and several anonymous private donors.
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Dillehay, T.D. (2024). Frontline Involvement in a Paradigm Change: Archaeology of the First Americans and Monte Verde. In: Brunn, S.D. (eds) Geography of Time, Place, Movement and Networks, Volume 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-58021-5_3
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