As mentioned in a previous post
(see here) I have been scouring the internet for information on any further
excavations of the MV-I portion of the Monte Verde site. Whilst I did not find
any references to MV-I having been further excavated to confirm the 33000BP
radiocarbon dates from his 1997 report1 I did come across an
extremely interesting piece by Ruth Gruhn in the Mammoth Trumpet, from 2007.
Among other things, the piece had some pictures of the lowest levels excavated at MV-I and the actual artifacts.
Photo Credit Tom Dillehay
Original caption: Ash smear and
charcoal fragments exposed on the Monte Verde I occupation level, with a lithic
artifact associated. Charcoal from this occupation level was dated ca. 34,000 RCYBP.
Photo Credit Tom Dillehay
Original caption: A basalt core
tool, 9.4 cm long, from the Monte Verde I occupation level.
Photo Credit Tom Dillehay
Original caption: Two hammerstones
from the Monte Verde I occupation level, showing marks of use as battering tools.
Each is about 13 cm in diameter.
The section of the article relating
to Monte Verde read thus:
“The Monte Verde project involved detailed geological research in the
area. Accordingly, geological test pits were excavated on a terrace of
Chinchihuapi Creek ca. 20–30 m across the creek from the Monte Verde II
settlement; and in a different stratum (basal MV-7), at a depth of ca. 1.5 m
below the level of the Monte Verde II occupation, lithic artifacts turned up.
Excavation in this area was expanded. In all, 26 lithic artifacts were
recovered from a restricted zone in the compact grey sand deposit, including a
basalt core tool, two hammerstones with battering marks, three
percussion-struck flakes, and six utilized fractured pebbles. The basalt core
tool features 10 prominent flake scars on the face, and small use-wear flakes
have been detached from one acute edge. Blood residue identified as possibly
proboscidean was detected on the piece.
The lithic artifacts were recovered in direct association with three
small shallow clay-lined lenses with ash streaks and charcoal fragments,
possibly remains of hearths.
Dates of 33,750 ± 520 RCYBP and >33,020 RCYBP from samples of burnt
and charred beech wood correspond with previously published radiocarbon dates
on the particular geological stratum (basal MV-7) in which the artifacts and
features were found. Geomorphological reconstruction indicates that the Monte
Verde I artifacts and features were situated on a promontory overlooking an
ancient marsh or pond. Charred seeds of the reed Juncus sp., a wetlands plant
with edible stalks and seeds, were recovered in the hearth-like features.
Usually, severe critiques follow reports of really early archaeological sites;
but few questions have been raised about the quality of the Monte Verde I
evidence. Dillehay himself believes that some of the recovered evidence is valid,
but by itself it is insufficient at the present time to establish conclusively
a human occupation of the Americas this early.”
The most interesting part however
was the dates ascribed to the charcoal fragments they were in Radiocarbon
Years! So they convert to OLDER dates!
I therefore used the Columbia
University Radiocarbon age to calendar age conversion curve3 to look
at the ACTUAL date in calendar years. I adapted their graph and added lines and
grids to show the Dillehay 1997 Radiocarbon age of 33750RCY.
Monte Verde MV-I
Radiocarbon years before present (RCYBP) to Calendar Years Conversion. N Barden.
The age of the site turns out to be a stunning 39000BP or 39500BP if the
upper limit of the error is added. STUNNING!
1. Dillehay TD. Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene Settlement in Chile. Volume
II: The Archaeological Context. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press; 1997.
2. Gruhn R. The Earliest Reported
Archaeological Sites in South America. The Mammoth Trumpet, Volume 22, Number
1. January, 2007 Center for the Study of the First Americans, Department of
Anthropology, Texas A&M University
3. Chiu, T-C, R. G. Fairbanks, Li
Cao, Richard A. Mortlock, 2007. Analysis of the atmospheric 14C record spanning
the past 50,000 years derived from high-precision 230Th/234U/238U and
231Pa/235U and 14C dates on fossil corals. Quaternary Science Reviews, 26,
18-36
Update 29/12/15
Where these dates originate: Dillehay, states1 “The two
ages for stratum MV-7 (33370 +/-530 B.P., Beta-6754 and greater than 33020 B.P.,
Beta-7825) were excavated on the unconforming plain of SCH-4 (the base of
MV-7). The two samples were collected from two different, but spatially
contiguous, charcoal scatters in direct association with modified stones at a
depth of 2.0m below the present surface at the Monte Verde site and 8m below
the top of the intact Salto Chico Formation elsewhere in the area. The age of
this stratum thus represents a geologic, or possibly a cultural, event
(Dillehay 1986:3362)..”
I will obtain the 2nd reference and report further.
1. Dillehay, T.D. Early Rainforest Archaeology in Southwestern South America: Research Context, Design, and Data at Monte Verde. In: Wet Site Archaeology Purdy, Barbara A. 1990 Wet Site Archaeology CRC Press
2. Dillehay, T. 1986 The Cultural Relationships of Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene Settlement Site in the Sub-Antarctic Forest of South-Central Chile. In New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Edited by A.L. Bryan Center for the Study of Early Man. University of Maine, Orono. p319-337.
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