A recent archaeological find in this Latin American country has indicated that Asian migration had begun far earlier in the Americas than is currently presumed. The immigrants got to South America thousands of miles from Clovis in New Mexico - that is conventionally accepted as the oldest known in the western hemisphere - much earlier than is stated by the current census information. This discovery has encouraged experts to rewrite the history of human habitation in the continents.

Researchers suppose that the Americas were inhabited by human beings at least as early as 12,500 years ago. But artifacts unearthed at a site near Monte Verde in Chile, predate by at least 1,300 years the evidence of human habitation from the Clovis site, said a team of experts who recently stumbled upon the new find.

The dig at Monte Verde has also revealed preliminary evidence that Homo sapiens may have been residing in the region as long as 33,000 years ago. "It totally changes how we think of the prehistory of America," said Dennis Stanford, a member of the Monte Verde archaeological exploration team.