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A Catastrophe Killed the Ice Age Giants

2026-07-01 Entertainment
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The Cosmic Summit
The Cosmic Summit
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Description

Monte Verde in southern Chile broke the Clovis First model in 1997 when North America's leading archaeologists formally validated a site roughly 2,000 years older than the earliest known Clovis evidence, opening the door to a much wider range of theories about how and when humans first reached the Americas. A new paper from Todd Surovell at the University of Wyoming has reopened that question, arguing that a volcanic geological lens beneath the site dates to around 11,000 years ago, which would place the landform itself too young to support the older dating. Michael Arbuthnot's critique is precise rather than dismissive. Surovell did not take geological cores at the primary Monte Verde Two location, sampling instead from other points along the surrounding ravine, which leaves open the possibility that the stratigraphic comparison does not actually represent the site in question. His proposed resolution is simple: take new, high quality cores directly at Monte Verde Two and run a comparative analysis against Surovell's data. He also notes a less scientific dynamic at play, with researchers in the Clovis First and short chronology camp accepting the new paper readily as validation of a position they never abandoned, rather than treating it as one contested study among many that deserves the same scrutiny as the original findings. Find more from Michael here: https://www.archaeologyunderground.com/ Check out the full episode here: https://youtu.be/rfEN3zfwWCM

Top Comments (8)

@ToddWeisenberger 2026-07-02

I'm amazed every time I see a picture of Mammoths and mastadons in a cold setting. These animals ate grass and leaves. Also these animals having fur was not to keep them warm, it was to regulate their body temperature in a temperate climate. There were also millions more mammoths and everything else than humans at that time, we're supposed to believe that they just killed more than they could use or eat, while they are fighting for their lives? This idea is not only ridiculously stupid, it's incredibly lazy, and close minded, and makes no sense. But that's what people are taught,,, I think I'm going to be sick

3
@mikelee9886 2026-07-02

They got there islwnd hopping

0
@mikelee9886 2026-07-02

Drop the sea level a few hundred feet as it was in the ice age, and you get a chain of islands across the whole Pacific, that includes Easter Island and ends right at the coast of Chile where the giant geoglyph of a person on the side of a hill is. It’s beyond obvious that this chain of islands acted as a pathway where they could go a hundred miles or so at a time, meaning doesn’t require open-sea fairing ability to cross

0
@qui-gonjay2944 2026-07-01

It is possible that Surovell took samples from the wrong area but it is 100% certain that he intentionally misrepresented or inflated his evidence attempting to discredit Dillehay. He does this for every site older than something he’s investigated.

0
@duaneelliott5194 2026-07-01

So what we told you about our own history is true. No wonder its being disputed.

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@villagegreeneherbal 2026-07-01

Mount verde 😂 Green Monte 😂

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@johnmaccallum7935 2026-07-08

These guys come up with a theory with nothing to back it up and the rest parrot it as gospel not one human relic dredged from "Beringia" Now it's the "Kelp Highway". This is science?

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@bertnerny 2026-07-01

More water down cartoonish interpretations of the past.

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