Moving Always Takes Longer Than Expected

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How long did it take for the Americas to be populated with people? The theory has been that ancient settlers would have moved quickly down the west coast from Siberia, drawing resources from the ocean. Findings from a team headed by Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Tom Dillehay and reported in Science back that theory, but point intriguingly to the possibility that migration might have been slower than presumed. In examining evidence from Chile’s Monte Verde archeological site located over 50 miles from the coast, the team found coastal artifacts and inland materials. This suggests that the residents of Monte Verde moved between areas. “It takes time to adapt to these inland resources and then come back out to the coast,” Dillehay says. If other early groups followed a similar pattern, then the peopling of the Americas may have been “a much slower and more deliberate process.”