Seaweed confirms Monte Verde village in Chile is among oldest in the Americas

by stvalentine | May 11, 2008 at 06:10 am | 227 views | add comment

Seaweed found at an inland settlement in Chile confirms that thevillage is one of the oldest inhabited sites in the Americas anddemonstrates that residents had extensive contact with the coastline,50 miles away

Radiocarbon dating of the seaweed shows that the samples are 14,100 years old, give or take 120 years. That means the site, called Monte Verde, is at least a millennium older than the so-called Clovis sites in the American Southwest, long believed to be the most ancient in the New World.
The report comes just a month after researchers reported similar datesfor fossilized human feces, called coprolites, found in Paisley Cave inOregon.

Monte Verde -- now in a peat bog, about 500 miles south of Santiago and10 miles from the coast -- contained about a dozen huts on a minorcreek, 10 miles north of a large bay. Perhaps 20 to 30 people livedthere, said archaeologist Tom D. Dillehay of Vanderbilt University inTennessee, who has been studying the site for 30 years.
Seaweed was found throughout the site, Dillehay and his colleaguesreported in the journal Science. Some samples were commingled withplants in cuds obviously chewed by residents for their medicinal value.Others, scattered around the huts, were probably food. The plants aregood sources of iodine, iron, zinc and other nutrients.

Seaweed was found throughout the site, Dillehay and his colleaguesreported in the journal Science. Some samples were commingled withplants in cuds obviously chewed by residents for their medicinal value.Others, scattered around the huts, were probably food. The plants aregood sources of iodine, iron, zinc and other nutrients.