In the classification of Archaeological cultures of North America, the Post-Classic Stage is a archaeological term applied to theoretical North and Meso-American societies that existed between 1200 CE and local contact with Europeans. This stage is the fifth of five stages posited by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips' 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.[1]
Cultures of the Post-Classic Stage are defined distinctly by possessing developed metallurgy. Social organization is supposed to involve complex urbanism and militarism. Ideologically, Post-Classic cultures are described as showing a tendency towards the secularization of society.[2]
Examples of cultures considered to be Post-Classic include the Aztecs and the late Maya.
The "Post-Classic Stage" followed the Classic stage and typically dates from AD 1200 to modern times.[3]
^Willey, Gordon R. (1989). "Gordon Willey". In Glyn Edmund Daniel and Christopher Chippindale (eds.). The Pastmasters: Eleven Modern Pioneers of Archaeology: V. Gordon Childe, Stuart Piggott, Charles Phillips, Christopher Hawkes, Seton Lloyd, Robert J. Braidwood, Gordon R. Willey, C.J. Becker, Sigfried J. De Laet, J. Desmond Clark, D.J. Mulvaney. New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN0-500-05051-1. OCLC19750309.
^Gordon R. Willey and Philip Phillips (1957). Method and Theory in American Archaeology. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-89888-9.
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