ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the early days of American archaeology, starting with the sensational descriptions of Maya ruins in Central America by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood from 1839 to 1842. These discoveries came at a time of intense controversy over the North American moundbuilders and the date of the first Americans. Southwestern archaeology developed in the late nineteenth century, emerging out of pioneering ethnological field researches by Adolph Bandelier and Frank Cushing.
