People have lived in the Greater Southwest for at least 12,000 years. Because written records on the Southwest began in A.D.1540 with European colonization, an important way of understanding American Indian occupation is through archaeology. Even following initial colonial period occupation of the Southwest, records were sparse and did not record the same information that archaeological research can provide. Tin addition, archaeology uses techniques from the social and natural sciences to describe past environments. This course provides an archaeological overview of American Indian societies in the Southwest from the earliest occupation to the colonial period, including where, when, and how they lived.