Quote Originally Posted by Standing Wolf View Post
I've often thought that North America is a relatively barren hunting ground when it comes to finding archaeological artifacts, when compared with almost anyplace in Europe. Aside from arrowheads, bones, pottery and a few simple stone monuments there simply isn't a lot to find here that's older than about three hundred years. In some parts of western Europe there are folks living in houses and apartment buildings that are far older than that and the people there think nothing of it. Every so often somebody will find a cache of Roman coins in a field in England, or something like this beautiful sword, and it highlights the tremendous length of time that relatively advanced societies have lived in those places.
The lack of metallurgical processes in pre-Columbian America does make it relatively barren in terms of artifacts. There were exceptions (e.g. the Mississippian culture which had an urban period, I believe) but the generally low level of material culture in what is now North America is also a factor.