Archaeology of the Americas: Archaeology of North America

4 credits · Undergraduate

Archaeological understanding of ancestral cultures in North America from the end of the last ice age (ca. 20,000 years before the present) up to the time of sustained European contact (beginning ca. 500 years ago). Emphasis on variability of cultural expression in each region and historical continuities between archaeological materials and contemporary Native American communities. Topics include: earliest sites known to archaeology; development of foraging societies in the far west and far north; origins of agriculture and village life; and the emergence of politically complex societies in the southwest and Eastern Woodlands.