 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. ==archaeological time periods==  the archaeological record in the americas is conventionally divided into five phases[1] according to an enduring system established in gordon willey and philip phillips' 1958 book method and theory in american archaeology. this contrasts from old world prehistory where the terms paleolithic, mesolithic, neolithic, chalcolithic and bronze age are generally used.  since these simplistic periods were defined, numerous regional and sub-regional divisions have been defined to distinguish various cultures through time and space. later archaeologists recognized that these linear stages did not adequately correspond to the cultural variation that existed in different locations in the americas. although the formative/classic/post-classic distinction is still used in the archaeology of mesoamerican chronology, the divisions have been replaced in most of north america by more local classifications with a more elaborated breakdown of periods of time. see: list of archaeological periods (north america) *the lithic stage /or paleo-indian period :defined initially as a big-game hunting adaptation. in most places, this can be dated to before 8000 bc. examples include the clovis culture and folsom tradition groups. *the archaic stage :defined as cultures relying primarily on increasing intensive collecting of wild resources, after the decline of the big-game hunting lifestyle. typically archaic cultures can be dated from 8000 bc to 1000 bc. 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 bc to ad 500. examples include the dorset culture, zapotec civilization, mimbres culture, olmec, woodland and [
Archaeology_of_the_Americas Archaeology_timelines History_of_the_Americas Timelines_of_North_American_history Timelines_of_South_American_history Timelines_of_the_Americas