Archaeology of the Americas

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Temple of Kukulcan in Chichen Itza located on top of Kukulcan pyramid

The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the

Pre-Columbian and historic indigenous American peoples, as well as historical archaeology
of more recent eras, including the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and European colonization.

Chronology

The

settlement of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic until the European colonization of the Americas during the early modern period. While technically referring to the era before the voyages of Christopher Columbus from AD 1492 to 1504, in practice the term usually includes the history of American indigenous cultures
until the 18th or 19th century. In more recent decades, archaeological scholarship has extended to include enslaved Africans and European and Asian migrant populations.

The pre-Columbian archaeological record in the Americas has conventionally been divided into five phases based on an enduring system established by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips's 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.[1] Their chronology differs from old world prehistory from Europe and Asia which uses the three-age system, with the Stone Age divided into Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Chalcolithic, followed by the Bronze Age and Iron Age, remain in general use.

Folsom projectile point.
National Park Service, c. 1961

Numerous regional and sub-regional divisions have since been defined to distinguish various cultures through time and space, as later archaeologists recognized that these generalised stages did not adequately correspond to the cultural variation that existed in different locations in the Americas.[1]

Defined by the ostensible prevalence of big-game hunting. In most places, this can be dated to before 8000 BCE, starting most probably around 16,500 BCE (see Paleo-Indians). Examples include the Clovis culture and Folsom tradition groups.
  • The
    Archaic stage
Defined by the increasingly intensive gathering of wild resources with the decline of the big-game hunting lifestyle. Typically, Archaic cultures can be dated from 8000 to 1000 BCE. Examples include the Archaic Southwest, the Arctic small tool tradition, the Poverty Point culture, and the Chan-Chan culture in southern Chile.
Defined as "village agriculture" based. Most of these can be dated from 1000 BCE to 500 CE. Examples include the .
Simplified map of subsistence methods at 1000 BCE
  Complex farming societies (Olmecs, Chorrera)
Defined as "early civilizations", and typically dating from 500 to 1200 CE. Willey and Phillips considered only cultures from Mesoamerica and Peru to have achieved this level of complexity. Examples include the early Maya and the Toltec.
Defined as "later prehispanic civilizations" and typically dated from 1200 CE until the advent of European colonisation. The late
Aztec
cultures were Post-Classic.

Today, for Meso- and Andean South America, the later periods are more often classified using the "Horizon" terminology, with "Early Horizon" typically broadly equating to the Late Formative stage. "Horizons" are periods of cultural stability and political unity, with "Intermediate periods" covering the politically fragmented transition between them. In the

Inca.[2]

Major regions

North America

NAGPRA

Since 1990, in the United States,

physical anthropology and archaeological investigations based on the study of human remains are influenced by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, (NAGPRA), which provides for the bodies of Native Americans and associated grave goods to be turned over to the recognized tribal body most legally affiliated with the remains; the law applies only to culturally identifiable remains and artefacts found on federally owned public land. In some cases, notably, that of Kennewick Man, these laws have been subject to close judicial scrutiny and great intellectual conflict.[3]

We can see that Mesoamerica its between Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, Mexico, & Nicaragua and El Salvador
Exact location of Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica

Aztec
, the most powerful tribe of Mesoamerica in their time.

South America