Researchers Claim Tools Are 30,000 Years Old

After 10 years of digging, researchers have discovered artifacts that suggest humans inhabited the Americas about 20,000 years earlier than was previously thought, the scientists reported Wednesday.

Tom Dillehay, a professor at the University of Kentucky’s department of anthropology, said 26 stones were found at Monte Verde in southern Chile, buried about one to two meters below the surface. Some appear to have been worked on by humans.

Dillehay, whose conclusions were reported in the journal Nature, said the stones look like examples of primitive tools which, after radiocarbon dating, appear to be at least 30,000 years old.

Used for Hammering

“Two of the stones are edge-battered hammer stones. Some have sharp edges that show wear and edge damage indicative of wear or use for scoring hide or cutting wood,” he said.

Those stones that do not look as though they were altered by humans look as though they were collected and transported to the site by humans, the researcher said.

Most of the stones are of basalt and andesite, though a few of the artifacts are made of tonalite and diorite.

“We’ve been working at the site for 10 years and had found a younger component above this one dated about 13,000, but this deeper layer has been slow excavating,” Dillehay said.

The site where the stones were uncovered is at the edge of the South American continent in Chile in a wet rain forest along the banks of the Chinchihuapi Creek, which researchers believe has existed since at least late Pleistocene times.

Cooler, Wetter Climate

The climate in years before 30,000 years ago was probably cooler and wetter than that of the present, and the environment was characterized by open forests and marshes, lagoons, and rivers.

“I feel confident that given the various kinds of research we have performed . . . it’s clear they’re human-produced artifacts. We feel like the dates are reliable sometime before 30,000 (BC),” he said.

The entry of the first Asians into the New World is generally thought to have occurred no earlier than 12,000 years ago.