David J. Meltzer
Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory
| Office Location |
Heroy Hall 442 |
| Phone |
214-768-2826 |
| Website |
Education
Ph.D. University of Washington, 1984
Bio
David J. Meltzer is an archaeologist whose research revolves around the origins, antiquity, and adaptations of the first Americans (Paleoindians) who colonized the North American continent at the end of the Pleistocene. His scholarship has appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals, such as Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and he is the author of various books, including The Great Paleolithic War: How Science Forged an Understanding of America's Ice Age Past (University of Chicago Press, 2015), First Peoples in a New World: Populating Ice Age America (now in a second edition from Cambridge University Press, 2021), Folsom: New Archaeological Investigations of a Classic Paleoindian Bison Kill (University of California Press, 2006), and Search for the First Americans (Smithsonian Books, 1993). He is also the co-author of The Mountaineer Site: A Folsom Winter Camp in the Rockies (University of Colorado Press, 2021). Meltzer is regularly interviewed by science journalists and in popular media, and has been featured on various podcasts, including MeatEater, The Ancients, Wildfed, and Bear Grease.
At SMU, Meltzer is the Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory and Executive Director of the Quest Archaeological Research Program. In addition, he is an Affiliate Professor in Prehistory, Climate and Environment, at the Centre for GeoGenetics, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1989), a Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2009), a Member of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (2009), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013). He is the winner of the Society for American Archaeology's 2025 Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research.
Research Interests
Peopling of the Americas and Paleoindian Adaptations • Ancient Genomics and Human Population History • Pleistocene Climates and Environments • History of North American Archaeology • Human Responses to Climate Change • North America
Courses Taught
People of the Earth: Humanity's First Five Million Years •North American Archaeology • The North American Great Plains: Land, Water, Life • In search of Ice Age Americans History of Anthropology, Part I • Principles of Archaeology • Seminar in Paleoenvironments • Archaeological Theory • Archaeological Research Strategies • Late Pleistocene Prehistory of North America
Current Graduate Students
Curtis Reagan Johnson • Anne Parfitt
