{{short description, Term describing archaeological methods in the early days of North American archaeology
The Speculative Period (1492a.-1840a.) was a term created by
Gordon Willey
Gordon Randolph Willey (7 March 1913 – 28 April 2002) was an American archaeologist who was described by colleagues as the "dean" of New World archaeology.Sabloff 2004, p.406 Willey performed fieldwork at excavations in South America, Central ...
and Sabloff (1993:12-37) to describe the
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
methods and approaches employed in North America at the time. All the data during this time was based mainly on the notes from accounts from explorers and missionaries. It was very primitive compared with modern archaeological methods. A major problem with using the accounts from explorers and missionaries in North America was how they labeled the Native Americans as one group because of the lack of visual physical differences.