and was framed with logs and planks staked in the ground, making walls of poles covered with animal hides. Using ropes made of local reeds, the hides were tied to the poles creating separate living quarters within the main structure. Outside the tent-like structure, two large hearths had been built for community usage, most probably for tool making and craftwork. Each of the living quarters had a brazier pit lined with clay. Around those hearths, many stone tools and remnants of spilled seeds, nuts, and berries were found. A 13,000-year-old specimen of the wild potato, Solanum maglia, was also found at the site; these remains, the oldest on record for any species of potato, wild or cultivated, suggest that southern Chile was one of the two main centres for the evolution of Solanum tuberosum tuberosum, the common potato. Remains of forty-five different edible plant species were found within the site, over a fifth of them originating from up to away. This suggested that the people of Monte Verde either had traded on or traveled regularly in this extended network. Other important finds from this site include human coprolites, a footprint, assumed to have been made by a child, stone tools, and cordage. Dr. Dillehay obtained the date for this site by radiocarbon dating charcoal and bone found within the site. In the May 9, 2008 issue of Science, a team reported that they identified nine species of seaweed and marine algae recovered from hearths and other areas in the ancient settlement. The seaweed samples were directly dated between 14,220 and 13,980 years ago, confirming that MV-II was occupied more than 1,000 years earlier than any other reliably dated human settlements in the Americas. Associated sites Another Chinchihuapi Creek site (with two layers labeled CH-I and CH-II), located about 500 meters upstream the same river that the Monte Verde site is on, has been dating to about 14,500 BP. Similar materials such as burned areas and fragmentary scorched animal bones associated with small rock flakes have been recovered. Between the sites, Dillehay and his team excavated test pits and core drillings, finding 12 small burned features directly associated with both burned and unburned animal remains, manuport stones, and anthropologically modified flakes dated between 18,500 BP - 14,500 BP. These findings may represent seasonal activities around the area. As of 2019, Dillehay has led two more excavations at the Chinchihuapi site, finding