For the past 30 years, a debate has been raging among archaeologists and other scientists as to the discovery and colonization of the Western Hemisphere by Native Americans. In 1977, archaeologists led by Tom Dillehay discovered a site at Monte Verde in southern Chile that was reliably dated to 14,500 years ago, almost 1,000 years before the accepted date for American colonization. Many other discoveries in several scientific disciplines followed, and the argument continues to pick up steam.
This book tells the story of the new claims and discoveries that have appeared in the last 30 years or so as told by one of the leading participants, David Meltzer, an archaeologist at Southern Methodist University. He examines the various lines of inquiry—genetics, geology, linguistics, physical anthropology, and, of course, archaeology—to provide a cutting-edge synthesis of our understanding of the settlement of the Americas.
Meltzer focuses on two themes. The first is what’s known about the original Americans and the physical, climatic, and ecological conditions of the last Ice Age in which they lived. This includes critiques of new theories of migration that have been formulated by researchers in various disciplines. There is also a lively chapter on the megafauna of the Pleistocene that went extinct at about the same time humans arrived in the New World. The second theme examines the methods of these researchers and their development of new, often contradictory, models.
This is an insider’s account of the leading controversy in American archaeology today. Written in a lively style for the general reader, it is both informative and full of entertaining descriptions of the sites, personalities, and ideas that fuel the debate. Richly illustrated and well produced, it is an outstanding contribution to the literature on this compelling topic. —Mark Michel
