The First South Americans: The Peopling of a Continent from the Earliest Evidence to High Culture

The recent and now indisputable findings at Monte Verde in southern Chile present the strong possibility that people were living in South America more than 12,000 years ago. If so, the long-cherished scenario in which the Americas were populated by big-game hunters crossing the Bering land bridge and then making their way slowly down the Americas may no longer be true. Other, still-disputed, South American sites may even date to 33,000 BP or earlier.

The First South Americans pre…