Here is a lavishly illustrated history of North America from first settlement around 15,000 years ago to the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century AD. The story is based mainly on archaeology, but also on cutting-edge research in many scientific disciplines, from biology and climatology to ethnohistory and high-tech chemistry and physics. This succinct, authoritative summary is written for students, the general reader or travellers, by a master storyteller and prolific archeological writer, and has been endorsed by a dozen specialists in different aspects of Native American culture.