ON THE PLEISTOCENE ANTIQUITY OF MONTE-VERDE, SOUTHERN CHILE

The potential importance of the Monte Verde site for the peopling of t he New World prompted a detailed examination of the collections from t hat locality as well as a site visit in January 1997 by a group of Pal eoindian specialists. It is the consensus of that group that the MV-II occupation at the site is both archaeological and 12,500 years old, a s T. Dillehay has argued. The status of the potentially even older mat erial at the site (MV-I, similar to 33,000 B.P.) remains unresolved.