Tom Dillehay

Tom Dillehay is an American anthropologist currently serving as the Rebecca Webb Wilson University Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Religion, and Culture, as well as a Professor of Anthropology at Vanderbilt University. He has previously held teaching positions at the Universidad Austral de Chile and the University of Kentucky. Since 1977, Dillehay has been actively involved in the excavations at Monte Verde, a site in Chile where an early human settlement was discovered in 1975. Based on calibrated carbon 14 dates, Dillehay proposes that the remains found at Monte Verde are approximately 14,800 years old. This evidence challenges the prevailing Clovis theory, which suggests that the first humans arrived in the Americas around 15,000 years ago, indicating the possibility of an earlier human presence in South America.

In addition to his archaeological work, Dillehay has conducted ethnographic research among the Mapuche people of southern Chile and the Jívaro community in northern Peru.