This topic introduces students to aspects of the human settlement of North America from earliest occupation until European contact ca 1492. Issues covered include evidence for the first occupation of the continent, extinction of megafauna, hunter-gatherer lifeways, the origins of agriculture and settled lifeways, social complexity, social-cultural diversity, and disease and past health. The archaeological records of pre-contact cultures from all parts of the continent will be used as case studies for examining various subjects, including cultural change and adaptation, subsistence, technology and the emergence of various social systems.
Timetable details for 2020 are no longer published.