Clovis First debate: Tom Dillah and the Monteverde discovery challenged establishment archaeology. Tom Dillah was the archaeologist responsible for the Monteverde discovery that overturned the Clovis First model. A.H. Als Hydraa was a Smithsonian archaeologist in the 1920s-1930s who opposed any idea of people in the Americas before ~3,000 years ago. Dillah received death threats and had people contact his universities claiming his PhD was fraudulent.
Tom Dillehay's Monte Verde excavation shattered the Clovis First model, putting the first Americans thousands of years earlier. The backlash was brutal: death threats, people contacting universities to question his PhD, and even claims to the Chilean government that he was a CIA plant. Yet the National Science Foundation kept funding his work. Incredible resolve in the face of such hostility.
Key Facts
- Tom Dillah was the archaeologist responsible for the Monteverde discovery that overturned the Clovis First model.
- A.H. Als Hydraa was a Smithsonian archaeologist in the 1920s-1930s who opposed any idea of people in the Americas before ~3,000 years ago.
- Dillah received death threats and had people contact his universities claiming his PhD was fraudulent.
- People contacted the Chilean government claiming Dillah was a CIA plant because Chilean dictator Pinochet was involved.
- Dillah received funding from the National Science Foundation for Monteverde research even amid criticism.
Related site: Monteverde — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.
Source: Teaching Flint Dibble & Neal Sendlak Logic & Facts LIVE P1 1 by DeDunking