The geographic location of Monte Verde — at the southern tip of South America, far from any proposed entry point into the Americas — implies that people had reached the far south of the continent significantly earlier than their documented presence at Monte Verde, because the time required to travel from Beringia to southern Chile would have been substantial even for a rapidly moving population.

If Monte Verde was occupied 14,500 years ago, and if people reached it from Beringia, then people must have been moving into the Americas well before 14,500 years ago — perhaps 18,000 to 20,000 years ago, or earlier, to allow time for the southward expansion across two continents.

This arithmetic has been one of the arguments pushing the timing of the initial American dispersal earlier than the Clovis horizon.

Bluefish Caves fits into this picture by providing archaeological evidence for people in Beringia 24,000 years ago — a date that is earlier than even the most generous pre-Clovis estimates for dispersal into the rest of North America, and that is consistent with the idea that people spent an extended period in Beringia before the dispersal routes opened.