The study of Old World Prehistory in the United States of America

Abstract

The teaching and study of Old World Prehistory are widespread and growing in the United States. However, actual research (especially excavation) is far more restricted among the many colleges, universities and museums that have specialists in particular aspects of this broad field. There is considerable interest notably in the Paleolithic/Mesolithic of Europe and Africa, generally associated with a paleoanthropological perspective. American researchers in anthropology departments are also heavily engaged in studies of terminal prehistory/protohistory in the Near East and Europe, with fewer specialists in the Neolithic per se. This article discusses the training, financing, organization, publication and theoretical foci for Old World prehistoric archeology in the U.S. It highlights the reasons for which American researchers usually approach the study of the Old World record from points of view that are different from and yet complementary to those of their European, African and Asian colleagues, who, unlike the Americans, feel they are directly studying their own national past. There is hopefully still a place for cooperative research involving Americans in full partnership with their Old World peers in the post-colonialist, post-Cold War world.