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Archaeology
The study of our human past through the objects left behind, such as tools, buildings, artifacts, and landscapes.
Overview
This section provides a brief introduction to the field of archaeology, including its main areas of study, key questions, and other topics important to archaeology research.
What's archaeology?
Archaeology is the study of the human past through the excavation, examination, and analysis of artifacts, structures, and other physical remains left by past peoples and cultures. This includes objects people made, used, or left behind, such as tools, buildings, pottery, bones, or trash.
What do archaeologist study?
Archaeologists study and analyze materials to learn about how people lived, what they believed, how they organized their societies, and how they interacted with their environments.
They study tools, pottery, buildings, bones, seeds, waste dumps, and burial sites. Basically, they study anything humans left behind, from ancient cave paintings to modern landfills. They record, map, and catalog everything they find for further analysis.
What are the main fields of archaeology?
Archaeology has many specialized fields, organized by time period, geography, method, or subject matter.
For example, regions and cultures include classical archaeology (ancient Greece and Rome), Egyptology and Near Eastern archaeology, Mesoamerican and Andean archaeology, Biblical archaeology, and East Asian, South Asian, and African archaeology.
Time periods include prehistoric archaeology, historical archaeology and medieval archaeology.
Environmental fields of archaeology include underwater and maritime archaeology, aerial and remote-sensing archaeology, archaeobotany and paleoethnobotany (plant remains), and geoarchaeology.
One of the most popular fields is forensic archaeology, used at crime scenes, mass graves, and disaster recovery.
What other subjects are important to the study of archaeology?
Other subject areas important to archaeological studies include ecology and biology, economics, sociology, history, psychology, and geography.
How do I learn more about the profession of archaeology?
Archaeology majors go on to work in a wide range of fields, including museums and historical societies, universities and research institutes, federal agencies, and education. If you’re thinking about majoring in archaeology, these resources can provide useful background information and help guide your next steps. They explain what to expect from the major and the wide variety of career paths available to you.
- A Career in Archaeology - Archaeological Institute of America
- Careers for Archaeology Majors & Minors - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Archaeologist - The Princeton Review
- Archaeologist - U.S. News & World Report
- Archaeology Career Guide - National Park Service - U.S. Department of the Interior
Archaeology Reference
Archaeology isn’t just about excavating artifacts. It involves interpreting human history across thousands (and in some cases millions) of years and many world regions. Reference sources help researchers, students, and professionals make sense of this wide-ranging material. Below, we provide a comprehensive list of reference resources. We provide links to either the publisher’s websites or Amazon for further details and descriptions.
General Databases
Academic libraries subscribe to a diverse range of research databases of which EBSCO and ProQuest are two of the largest providers. Most colleges and universities offer access to one or both platforms. Here are some key insights about each:
- Both are multidisciplinary research databases covering multiple disciplines.
- Both provide access to dozens of subject databases with a single search interface.
- Both provide a varied mix of e-books, scholarly journals, peer-reviewed journals, trade publications, magazines, images, and newspapers.
EBSCO
EBSCOhost is a major research database platform that allows users to search multiple EBSCO databases simultaneously. The difference between EBSCOhost and Academic Search is that Academic Search can be searched as part of the EBSCOhost platform or searched separately if your institution has a subscription. To check if your institution subscribes to EBSCOhost, use EBSCO’s Find your institution page.
ProQuest
ProQuest is a major database vendor and platform that provides access to hundreds of database collections. The ProQuest platform provides a multidisciplinary search with access to scholarly ebooks, journals, video and audio, newspapers, and more, all searchable simultaneously. ProQuest is unique in providing dissertations and theses, historical newspapers, and other primary sources.
Scholarly Databases
Scholarly research databases provide peer-reviewed academic journal articles, book reviews, and other scholarly resources authored by scholars, researchers, or academics who are experts in their fields. Unlike magazines (Time, Newsweek, etc.) focused on current events, news, and general-interest stories written by journalists, articles in scholarly journals undergo rigorous review before publication. The following is a list of the most important multidisciplinary scholarly research databases.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a free academic search engine that helps researchers and students find scholarly literature across disciplines. It indexes journal articles, books, conference papers, theses, patents, and other resources from academic publishers, universities, and professional organizations.
- Unlike subscription databases, which publish lists of journals in their collections, Google Scholar does not provide a list of the journals, books, repositories, or conference proceedings it indexes.
- General databases such as EBSCO and ProQuest allow you to limit your results to peer-reviewed articles only. Google Scholar does not filter results for peer-reviewed articles.
- When off your school’s network, you must enable your institution’s Google Scholar library links (review process) to see full-text articles available in your institution. If Library Links are not enabled, you’ll only see paywalls, publisher links, and what’s available open-access in the public domain.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), compiled by the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics, provides access to a vast collection of scholarly literature in the social sciences. Covering multiple disciplines, IBSS includes references to journal articles, books, newspapers, and dissertations, with records dating back to 1951.
JSTOR
JSTOR is an important scholarly research database for the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. It provides the full text of articles from thousands of influential academic journals. In addition to journal articles, users can access eBooks, book chapters, images, and primary source documents. JSTOR also provides an AI research tool that provides key points and arguments of articles.
JSTOR contains the full text of more than 2,000 journals from 1,000 publishers, with publication dates ranging from 1665 to 2015 (for certain titles). JSTOR also provides:
- Free access to Early Journal Content published before the last 95 years in the United States or before the last 143 years if initially published internationally.
- A collection of nearly 150 open-access journals covering the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
- JSTOR allows anyone to register for a free personal JSTOR account and provides access to 100 free monthly articles.
Project Muse
Project MUSE offers online access to a vast collection of scholarly journals, books, and academic resources in the humanities, social sciences, and arts. As a leading provider of digital humanities content, it features high-quality, peer-reviewed publications from prestigious university presses, scholarly societies, and academic publishers.
ProQuest Dissertations
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses is a database of dissertations and theses from universities worldwide. It provides access to millions of full-text works across many disciplines, including the social sciences, humanities, sciences, and business. Each dissertation includes an abstract or summary that provides a concise overview of the research, its methodology, and key findings.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect is a leading full-text scholarly scientific database that provides journal articles and book chapters from more than 2,500 peer-reviewed journals and more than 11,000 books. It covers over 24 major subjects in the physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.
Social Science Full Text
Social Sciences Full Text provides access to a wide range of scholarly literature in the social sciences. It covers many disciplines, including sociology, psychology, international relations, political science, anthropology, economics, and education.
Web of Science
Web of Science is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research and citation index that provides access to a wide range of scientific, technical, social science, and humanities research. It maintains rigorous criteria for the journals and publications it indexes, ensuring that only high-quality, peer-reviewed content is included. Web of Science includes 98 million papers dating back to 1900.
Archaeology Databases
Searching general or multi-disciplinary databases can sometimes give you too many results. To narrow your focus, try using a database dedicated to subject research. The list below highlights the top databases for finding subject journals and articles. The following research databases specialize in subjects covering archaeology.
Annual Review of Anthropology
The Annual Review of Anthropology is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes comprehensive literature review articles in anthropology. Each year, a new volume is released, consisting of articles written by leading experts in the field, providing overviews of the most important and influential research and scholarship in anthropology.
Anthropology Plus
Anthropology Plus combines the content of two prominent anthropology databases: Anthropological Index Online (AIO) and Anthropological Literature (AL). It provides access to a wide range of anthropology-related scholarly literature, including journal articles, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, and reports. Subjects covered include:
AnthroSource
Anthrosource is an online platform for anthropological research. Produced by the American Anthropological Association (AAA) it provides access to scholarly journals, newsletters, and bulletins published by the AAA and other affiliated organizations.
eHRAF World Cultures
Electronic Human Relations Area Files (eHRAF) is an online anthropological database that provides access to a large collection of ethnographic information about cultures from around the world. It is a unique resource that allows researchers to explore and compare cultural information across different societies and time periods. eHRAF contains ethnographic data from various sources, including books, articles, dissertations, and field reports.
GeoRef
GeoRef is a database for geoscience research, produced by the American Geosciences Institute. It indexes millions of references to journal articles, books, maps, conference papers, and reports covering geology and related fields from the 17th century to today. Topics span everything from earthquakes, volcanoes, and fossils to environmental geology, hydrogeology, and planetary science. GeoRef is available through several different vendors and platforms, including: EBSCO, Engineering Village, GeoScienceWorld, ProQuest, and Ovid.
L’Année Philologique
L’Année Philologique is the leading international index for classical studies, covering scholarship on the languages, literature, history, philosophy, art, archaeology, and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. It includes references to journal articles, books, reviews, and conference proceedings from 1924 to the present.
tDAR (the Digital Archaeological Record)
The Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) is a digital repository and database designed to preserve and provide access to archaeological data. It hosts excavation reports, images, maps, datasets, and other research materials from projects around the world. tDAR stores original research data so that future scholars can reuse, compare, and build on past work.
Archaeology Journals
Journal Citation Reports (JCR) is widely regarded as the leading subscription-based resource for identifying high-quality, peer-reviewed journals and assessing the impact, influence, and quality of scholarly journals across disciplines, including anthropology. To learn more about JCR and journal impact, go to Journal Databases.
Most Cited Journals
Journal Citation Reports ranks the Journal of Archaeological Science as the most-cited archaeology journal for 2024. To review the complete JCR list of highly cited archaeology journals, go to Journal Citation Reports and choose Categories > Social Sciences, General > Archaeology. Listed below are the 10 most cited archaeology journals for 2024.
Journal of Archaeological Science
American Antiquity is a leading peer-reviewed scholarly journal in archaeology focused on the archaeology of the Americas. It’s been published by the Society for American Archaeology since 1935. It publishes research on topics related to human history in North, Central, and South America, including archaeological theory and methods, ancient technologies and artifacts, and indigenous cultures.
Journal of Cultural Heritage
Journal of Cultural Heritage is a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on the care, preservation, and scientific study of cultural heritage. The journal publishes research on how museums, conservators, archaeologists, and heritage professionals analyze, protect, restore, and manage cultural objects and sites. This includes artworks, historic buildings, archaeological materials, manuscripts, monuments, and museum collections.
Journal of Archaeological Science-Reports
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes research focused on archaeological scientific methods. Articles cover archaeology techniques in fields such as chemistry, biology, geology, and materials science. The journal covers topics such as artifact analysis, dating methods, ancient diets, environmental reconstruction, and new laboratory or analytical approaches.
Antiquity
Antiquity is a leading peer-reviewed archaeology journal publishing global research across all time periods, from the earliest human origins to contemporary archaeological theory.
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences
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American Antiquity
American Antiquity is a leading peer-reviewed scholarly journal in archaeology focused on the archaeology of the Americas. It’s been published by the Society for American Archaeology since 1935. It publishes research on topics related to human history in North, Central, and South America, including archaeological theory and methods, ancient technologies and artifacts, and indigenous cultures.
Archaeometry
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Journal of Anthropological Archaeology
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International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
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World Archaeology
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Archaeology News
Archaeology news sources and magazines highlight the emerging research topics and trends, sparking ideas for research questions and assignments. Remember that magazines are written for the general public and lack peer review, while scholarly articles are written by experts and reviewed by other scholars for accuracy and research quality.
Archaeology Methods
The following resources provide in-depth information on various research design concepts, methodologies, and techniques specific to archaeology.
Archaeologists work with NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) to locate and study shipwrecks, submerged cities, and ancient coastlines using the same sonar, satellite mapping, and underwater robotics designed for ocean and climate research. Learn More
Source: NOAA ONMS (Public Domain)