LARAMIE, Wyo., June 18 -- The University of Wyoming issued the following news release:

University of Wyoming Professor Todd Surovell knew that a paper he and colleagues published in March in the journal Science would shake the world of archaeology.

That has indeed been the case, as their study -- showing that the famous Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile is only 4,200-8,200 years old, not 14,500 years old as posited by researchers who worked on the site from the 1970s through the 1990s -- has drawn intense criticism from those earlier researchers and others, as well as support from a number of archaeologists.

Now, Surovell and his colleagues -- Claudio Latorre, Cesar Mendez and Juan-Luis García, of Pontificia Universi...