David J. Meltzer

Henderson-Morrison Professor of Prehistory

Email

dmeltzer@smu.edu

Office Location

Heroy Hall 442

Phone

214-768-2826

Website

http://people.smu.edu/dmeltzer/

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 NatureScience, 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: Colonizing Ice Age America (University of California Press, 2010), 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-editor of The Mountaineer Site: A Folsom Winter Camp in the Rockies (University of Colorado Press, 2021). Meltzer is regularly cited as an expert in popular media and has been featured on various podcasts, including MeatEaterThe AncientsWildfed, 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) and The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (2009), and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2013).

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

David Meltzer