Chapter 1. Introduction -- Part 1. History of research in Lagoa Santa -- Chapter 2. Peter Wilhelm Lund – life and work -- Chapter 3.Peter Wilhelm Lund´s scientific contributions -- Chapter 4. The anthropological studies of Lagoa Santa in the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro: Insertion, debates, and scientific controversies at the turn of 19th to 20th century -- Chapter 5.The physical anthropology archives of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro: Lagoa Santa in the first half of the 20th century -- Chapter 6.The Minas Gerais Academy of Sciences – Lund’s inheritors -- Chapter 7.Archaeological missions to the Lagoa Santa region in the second half of the 20th century -- Chapter 8. The National Museum’s contributions to the Lagoa Santa research in the second half of the 20th century -- Chapter 9.The Origins project and the first Americans controversy -- Part II.Research topics -- Chapter 10.The repercussions of the human skeletons from Lagoa Santa in the international scenario -- Chapter 11.The Lagoa Santa skeletons and the cranial morphology of the first Americans -- Chapter 12.History of the research into health and lifestyle in Lagoa Santa -- Chapter 13.Burial practices in the Lagoa Santa region -- Chapter 14.Constructing the past. A look at Lagoa Santa paleontology -- Chapter 15.The history of the studies of prehistoric rock paintings in the Lagoa Santa karst -- Chapter 16. Lithic technology in Lagoa Santa in the Early Holocene -- Chapter 17. Towards the development of a tropical geoarchaeology: Lagoa Santa as an emblematic case study.This groundbreaking volume presents, for the first time in English, a broad historical review of the researches carried out over 170 years in the region of Lagoa Santa, Brazil, one of the most important archaeological regions in the Americas. From the pioneering work of the Danish naturalist Peter Lund in the 19th century to the recent research on the dispersion of early humans across South America, led by Walter A. Neves and colleagues, Lagoa Santa has offered remarkable findings, the largest collections of early human skeletons in the Americas, and has contributed to the overall discussions about the settlement of the Americas. This edited volume aims to fill the lack of publications in English about Lagoa Santa and to gather representatives of all the main Brazilian institutions directly involved in the archaeological and paleontological investigations in the region, in order to provide the international scientific community a comprehensive and complete account of the researches that contributed to rewrite the history of the peopling of the Americas. The book is organized in two parts. The first consists of chapters describing each of the interventions in the region, beginning with the pioneering work of Peter Lund and culminating with the latest intervention led by Walter A. Neves and his team. The second part of the book consists of reviews of current relevant research foci in the region, such as migrations, health, mortuary rituals, paleontology, rock art, technology, and geoarchaeology.