One of the greatest controversies in American archaeology involves the debate over when the first people arrived in the New World, and long at the center of the debate has been the South American site of Monte Verde, where research that began decades ago produced evidence of a human presence there as early as 14,500 years ago.

While marking the beginning of a major paradigm shift in the archaeological world, the site has remained at the heart of the debate over when the first Americans arrived, which has seen its latest challenge in a new paper published in the journal Science. This week on The Micah Hanks Program, we examine the newest findings and weigh them against the body of data that argues the existence of a "Pre-Clovis" cultural presence in the Americas.

Image Credit: Claudio Latorre.

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Monte Verde: Rebirth of an Archaeological Controversy | MHP 03.23.26.