For more than a century, hundreds of professional archaeologists have been surveying, excavating, and studying the American Southwest. This hefty volume takes stock of what they have learned so far about the people of the region and their various cultures. More than seventy leading scholars, mostly archaeologists, but also tribal representatives, an ethnographer, and a bioarchaeologist contribute articles on every aspect of the archaeology of the region. Modern archaeology is an interdisciplinary field of study, and many scholars with specialties in the humanities and sciences are represented here.
As such, this book addresses the many aspects of archaeology from a historical point of view. The first group of essays deals with the various intellectual orientations of archaeology in the Southwest. Another group of chapters focuses on the comprehensive overview of cultural development of particular archaeological sequences from the earliest Paleo-Indian settlers to the present. Still another group deals with the material culture and the technologies that developed over thousands of years. Cultural landscapes have become an important part of Southwest archaeology and four chapters discuss this developing aspect of the field. The final group of chapters deals with ecology and how the natural world—climate, minerals, plants, animals— interacts with people to shape their story.
The American Southwest is one of the most important archaeological regions in the world, and it has been in the forefront of the development of new archaeological methods and theories. This handbook brings all that research and knowledge into one venue making it the most comprehensive general survey to date. This is not a textbook that tells the chronological story of the various peoples of the Southwest over their 12,000 year history. Rather, it is a thorough discussion of the discoveries and trends of six generations of scholars. The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology is an essential reference for any scholar who works in the region and also for the interested general public that seeks a better understanding of the history of this region.
