The pre-Columbian archaeological record in the Americas is conventionally divided into five phases according to an enduring system established in Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips's 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.

This differs from old world prehistory where the terms Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age are generally used.The Archaic Stage is defined by the increasingly intensive gathering of wild resources with the decline of the big-game hunting lifestyle.

Typically, Archaic cultures can be dated from 8000 to 1000 BCE.

Examples include the Archaic Southwest, the Arctic small tool tradition, the Poverty Point culture, and the Chan-Chan culture in southern Chile.As its ending is defined by the adoption of sedentary farming, this date can vary "significantly across the Americas".

The Archaic period follows the Lithic stage and is superseded by the Formative stage.