---
node: sa_monte_verde
type: event
slug: monte_verde
title: "Monte Verde"
lead: "Monte Verde is an archaeological site in southern Chile, dated to about 14,500 years ago, that is among the oldest securely dated human settlements in the Americas. Its evidence helped overturn the idea that the Clovis culture was the first."
published: 2026-07-13
updated: 2026-07-13
image_file: monte_verde.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monte_Verde_3.JPG"
image_author: "Rodolfo Ditzel Lacoa"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## What happened

Excavations at Monte Verde uncovered the remains of a small settlement — wooden structures, hearths, tools, and even preserved plants and mastodon meat — beside a creek. Waterlogged, peaty soil preserved organic materials rarely found at such age.

## Background

The site was dated to roughly a thousand years before the Clovis culture of North America, challenging the long-held Clovis-first model of American settlement. Its early acceptance was hard-won and controversial.

## Consequences

Monte Verde became key evidence that people reached the far south of the Americas very early, likely via a Pacific coastal route. It reshaped scholarly understanding of how and when the continent was peopled.