The archaeology of the Americas is the study of the archaeology of North America, 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; the Pre-Columbian era is the term 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 includes the history of American indigenous cultures until they were conquered or influenced by Europeans if this happened decades or centuries after Columbus' initial landing; the pre-Columbian archaeological record in the Americas is conventionally divided into five large 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 three-age system, with the Stone Age divided into Paleolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, followed by the Bronze Age and Iron Age, remain in general use. Numerous regional and sub-regional divisions have since been defined to distinguish various cultures through time and space, as archaeologists recognized that these generalised stages did not adequately correspond to the cultural variation that existed in different locations in the Americas. Lithic stageDefined by the ostensible prevalence of big-game hunting. In most places, this can be dated to before 8000 BCE, starting most around 16,500 BCE. Examples include the Clovis culture and Folsom tradition groups; the Archaic stageDefined by the intensive gathering of wild resources with the decline of the big-game hunting lifestyle. Archaic cultures can be dated from 8000 to 1000 BCE. Examples include the Archaic Southwest, the Arctic small tool tradition, the Poverty Point culture, the Chan-Chan culture in southern Chile.

The Formative stageDefined 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 and Mississippian cultures; the Classic stageDefined as "early civilizations", 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 Toltec; the Post-Classic stageDefined as "later prehispanic civilizations" and dated from 1200 CE until the advent of European colonisation. The late Maya and the Aztec cultures were Post-Classic. Today, for Meso- and Andean South America, the periods are more classified using the "Horizon" terminology, with "Early Horizon" broadly equating to the Late Formative stage. "Horizons" are periods of cultural stability and political unity, with "Intermediate periods" covering the politically fragmented transition between them. In the Andes, there are three Horizon periods, with two Intermediate periods between them.

The Horizons, their dominant cultures are: Early Horizon, Chavin. Since 1990, in the United States, physical anthropology and archaeological investigations based on the study of human remains are complicated by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which provides for the bodies of Native Americans and associated grave goods to be turned over to the recognized tribal body most affiliated with the remains. In some cases, that of Kennewick Man, these laws have been subject to close judicial scrutiny and great intellectual conflict. Mesoamerica is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries. Prehistoric groups in this area are characterized by agricultural villages and large ceremonial and politico-religious capitals This culture area included some of the most complex and advanced cultures of the Americas, including the Olmec, the Maya, the Aztec.

Molecular genetics study suggests that surviving Amerindian populations derived from a theoretical single founding population from only 50 to 70 genetic contributors Preliminary research, restricted to only 9 genomic regions have shown a genetic link between original Americas and Asia populations. The study does not address the question of separate migrations for these groups, excludes other DNA data-sets; the American Journal of Human Genetics released an article in 2007 stating "Here we show, by using 86 complete mitochondrial genomes, that all Indigenous American haplogroups, including Haplogroup X, were part of a single founding population." Amerindian groups in the Bering Strait region exhibit the strongest DNA or mitochondrial DNA relations to Siberian peoples. The genetic diversity of Amerindian indigenous groups increase with distance from the assumed entry point into the Americas. Certain genetic diversity patterns from West to East suggest at least some coastal migration events. Geneticists have variously estimated that peoples of Asia and the Americas were part of the same population from 42,000 to 21,000 years ago

Marta Hillers was a German journalist, the author of the memoir, Eine Frau in Berlin, published anonymously in 1959 and 2003 in German. It is the diary of a German woman from 20 April to 22 June 1945, during and after the Battle of Berlin; the book details the author's rape, in the context of mass rape by the occupying forces, how she and many other German women chose to take a Soviet officer as a protector. The book was first published in English in 1954 in the United States; when it was published in Germany in 1959, the author was accused of "besmirching the honor of German women." Hillers refused to have another edition published in her lifetime. Having married and moved to Switzerland, Hillers left journalism and did not publish another major work, she died in 2001. A new edition of her book was published posthumously in Germany in 2003, again anonymously, it was on the bestseller list for weeks. A controversy broke out. No one else has been suggested. New English editions were published in the United Kingdom and the United States in 2005, as well as in seven other languages.

The book was released first in 2008 in Germany and Poland. In the United States it is known as A Woman in Berlin. Marta Hillers was born in Krefeld, Germany, on May 26, 1911. After attending local schools, she studied in Paris at the Sorbonne, she travelled extensively throughout Europe, including the Soviet Union. She spoke some Russian in addition to her native German. Hillers worked as a journalist in Berlin, writing for newspapers, she did some minor work for the Nazi regime but is not believed to have been a Party member. In 1945 she was in Berlin. During this period, she kept a diary, describing how the women and elderly men survived in the city in those days, she describes that she and other women of any age were raped by Red Army soldiers. To protect themselves and other women took Soviet soldiers as protectors. An estimated 100,000 women in Berlin were raped during the occupation. Following the war and encouraged by a friend, she had her memoir published in English in the United States in 1954.

She kept her identity anonymous. Hillers married in the 1950s and moved to Geneva, abandoning journalism. In 1959, she had her memoir published in German in Switzerland, again anonymously. Based on the negative reviews it received in Germany and accusations about her having offended the honor of German women, she refused to have any new editions published in her lifetime, she died in June 2001, in Basle. A Woman in Berlin was her only major work. With the aid of German author Kurt Marek, Hillers published her book in the United States in 1954. Marek arranged for a translation into English. In 1955 the book was published in the United Kingdom by Warburg. In 1959 Hillers published her memoir in German, by a Swiss publisher and again insisted on anonymity; the book did not sell well. Hillers was accused of "besmirching the honour of German women", of "shameless immorality" and of anti-communist propaganda. One review accused her of falsifying her account and of doing a "disservice to Berlin women."Hans Magnus Enzensberger, who published the 2003 German edition, wrote about the book's reception in the postwar years: "German readers were not ready to face some uncomfortable truths...

German women were not supposed to talk about the reality of rapes. The author's attitude was an aggravating factor: devoid of self-pity, with a clear-eyed view of her compatriots' behaviour before and after the Nazi regime's collapse, everything she wrote flew in the face of the reigning post-war complacency and amnesia." After this controversy, Hillers refused to allow the book to be republished in her lifetime. It was popular among German feminists in the 1970s. Hans Magnus Enzensberger, a poet and essayist, had learned that Hannelore Marek held the copyright and had agreed to Hillers' prohibition against publication in her lifetime, she contacted him. Enzensberger, a poet and essayist, arranged publication of a new edition of Eine Frau in Berlin as part of his Die Andere Bibliothek series. In 2005, the memoir was republished in a new English translation, by Virago Press, a feminist publishing house in London and in the United States by Macmillan, it became a best seller in both English editions.

Journalists investigated in 2003 to determine the identity of the author. Jens Bisky, the literary editor of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, wrote in September 2003 that Hillers may have been the anonymous author, he wrote a profile of her life, noting that she was a journalist who worked on magazines and newspapers during the Nazi era and had done some minor work for the Nazi government. He thought she was not a member of the Nazi Party. Hannelore Marek, who holds the copyright, did not confirm that Hillers was the author of A Woman in Berlin. Enzensberger denounced Bisky's comments as "Skandal-journalismus". No other candidate for the authorship of the book has been suggested. Marek had noted in his afterword to the 1954 English edition that the book was based on a typescript drawn from handwritten notes, his widow, Hannelore Marek, kept these after his death in 1971. At the time of the Bisky revelations in

Uzeir is an Arab village in northern Israel. Located near Nazareth Illit in the Lower Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of al-Batuf Regional Council. In 2018 it had a population of 3,200. Findings from the Roman and Early Islamic periods have been found in the village, it was mentioned in the Ottoman defter for the year 1555-6, as Mezraa land, called ‘Uzayr, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa of Safad. The land was designated as Timar land. In 1799, a map from Napoleon's invasion by Pierre Jacotin showed the place, named as El Qasr. In 1838 it was noted as el - ` Aziz, in the Nazareth District. In 1875, the French explorer Victor Guérin reached the village and described it as consisting of about 20 houses on the side of a hill. A few old columns were remains after an ancient site. A Muslim Maqam with two small domes, dedicated to "Neby A'ouzeir" was close by. In Palestine Exploration Fund's 1881 Survey of Western Palestine, the village was described as: A stone village at the foot of the hill.

The plain to the north is cultivated with cotton, etc. There are about 150 Moslems in the village. Water is supplied by cisterns in the village, a tank. A population list from about 1887 showed. In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British authorities,'Uzair had a population of 70, all Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 88, still all Muslim, in 15 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population was 150 Muslims while the total land area was 766 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 737 dunams were allocated for cereals. In 1948, Uzeir was captured by the Israeli army during the second part of Operation Dekel between 15 and 18 July; the village remained under martial law until 1966. Arab localities in Israel Welcome To'Uzeir Survey of Western Palestine, Map 6: IAA, Wikimedia commons