Todd Surovell paper claims Monteverde landform is only 8,000 years old

June 30, 2026Theory

500 BC - 1 AD

Source: Randall Carlson Is Opening a University by The Cosmic Summit

Site mentioned

Tucked into southern Chile, Monteverde stands as one of the Western Hemisphere's most important archaeological sites. Dr. Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University has excavated there for decades, and its discoveries sit at the heart of debates about when and how humans first populated the Americas. 🌎⛏️

Key facts

Todd Surovell of the University of Wyoming conducted a geomorphological study around Monteverde
Surovell argues a volcanic lens approximately 11,000 years old underlies the site
His argument claims the landform the site sits on is only about 8,000 years old
He argues some artifacts may not be artifacts and questions whether hearths are anthropogenic

Sources

A mid-Holocene age for Monte Verde challenges the ... - Sciencescience.org

Geological evidence presented by Surovell et al. (1) suggests that the occupation at Monte Verde II (MV-II) dates to the middle Holocene and ...

A new study questions when people first reached South Americasciencenews.org

Surovell and colleagues' new study suggests that wood and other organic material thought to show “pre-Clovis” people living at Monte Verde had ...

UW-Led Research Resets Age of Famous South American ...uwyo.edu

In fact, Surovell and colleagues argue that the surface on which the Monte Verde materials came to rest did not exist 14,500 years ago ...

Todd Surovell Archaeologist - Google Sitessites.google.com

I am an archaeologist with specialization in Paleoindian period, the earliest period of American archaeology. I have worked primarily in the Great Plains and ...

(PDF) A mid-Holocene age for Monte Verde challenges the timeline ...researchgate.net

We report the first independent investigation of Monte Verde in the nearly 50 years since initial excavations. We argue that radiocarbon and ...

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