Archaeological site in Chile upends theory of how humans populated the Americas … again

Discovery at Monte Verde puts north-to-south expansion theory back at centre of heated debate on continent’s human history

A groundbreaking new study may have once again upended our understanding of human prehistory in the Americas.

For years, the predominant theory of how humans arrived in the western hemisphere centred around the Clovis culture, which crossed the Beringia land bridge from Asia between 13,400 and 12,800 years ago, and spread south.