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The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of North America (Mesoamerica included), Central America, South America and the Caribbean. This includes the study of pre-historic/Pre-Columbian and historic indigenous American peoples, as well as historical archaeology of more recent eras. ==Periodization== The Pre-Columbian era is the term generally used to encompass all period subdivisions in the history of the Americas spanning the time from the original settlement of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic up until to the European colonization of the Americas during the early modern period. While technically referring to the era before the voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1504, in practice the term usually includes the history of American indigenous cultures until they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or even centuries after Columbus' initial landing. The pre-Columbian archaeological record in the Americas is conventionally divided into five phases according to an enduring system established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips's 1958 book ''Method and Theory in American Archaeology''.〔 This differs from old world prehistory where the terms Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age are generally used. 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. *Lithic stage :Defined by the ostensible prevalence of big-game hunting. In most places, this can be dated to before 8000 BCE. 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. *The Formative stage :Defined as "village agriculture" based. Most of these can be dated from 1000 BCE to 500 CE. Examples include the Dorset culture, Zapotec civilization, Mimbres culture, Olmec, Woodland, and Mississippian cultures. *The Classic stage :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. *The Post-Classic stage :Defined as "later prehispanic civilizations" and typically dated from 1200 CE until the advent of European colonisation. The late Maya and the Aztec cultures were Post-Classic. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Archaeology of the Americas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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