Back to Past Antiquity

Special Review Section:
Electronic Archaeology

For centuries, the right place to look, when in search of the best archaeological knowledge, has been in some kind of printed book. There will once have been a manuscript, and if the book never materialized, a manuscript may substitute, but what usually matters is the better truth that has the authority of print.

In a now-standard joke, a wizard of a yet-newer information display system is described: hugely flexible in size and in format and in what it can present, made of cheap and common materials, wholly recyclable, and - best of all - requiring no screen or display device of any kind whatsoever. At some point you realize the miracle being described is a book. But the book is for many purposes deservedly obsolescent, and archaeological research is in truth already in the age beyond the printed book. Specialist illustrated publications have high fixed costs in the print, and low circulations mean there are too few copies to spread the costs over. When the first new technology of cheap reprographics came in a generation ago, the 'grey literature' of field reports began to grow, soon reaching a point at which no library and no individual could be relied on to possess the 'collected literature' on any topic of large range. Now an increasing amount of archaeological knowledge is only or better made accessible electronically.

Electronic archaeology centres on the Internet (text files, email, file transfer and Telnet) and its hypertext- and graphics-capable arm, the World Wide Web; it also includes CD-ROM and its successors, and electronic archives. In not too many pages, this Special sketches what there is and what it means.

First, the Web itself. The Special begins with Sara Champion's survey of archaeology on the World Wide Web: we call it a 'field-guide' to emphasize how much one goes out to explore that large and shifting landscape which is the World Wide Web. Archaeological attitudes one learns in field survey will sometimes help.

Second, publishing. Stevan Harnad looks at electronic journal-publishing, as the great opportunity now available to escape from old print habits and old print costs, in a wholly changed economics of specialist scholarly publishing. Mike Heyworth and colleagues set out their programme for Internet Archaeology, an electronic journal choosing instead more closely to translate the established frames of the print.

Third, the electronic media that fall somewhere between personal letters and formal publications, with David L. Carlson remarking on electronic communications and communities and John G. Younger reporting how he manages 'AegeaNet', the leading electronic forum for Aegean archaeology.

Electronic media being more transient than printed books, and at the same time promoting re-use and transformation of old material, archiving and access is a special concern. So, fourth, Harrison Eiteljorg, II on electronic archiving, and Julian D. Richards on the Archaeology Data Service as an initiative in that field.

CD-ROMs, like books, are centrally created and distributed as physical objects; in other aspects they are fully electronic. Fifth, Dominic Powlesland on CD-ROMs as a medium for the special character of archaeological publication, and Phil Perkins on CD-ROMs and other digital media in university education.

Sixth, consequences of this change in a fundamental of the academic and intellectual world, as we immediately see it. Elizabeth Peachey & Christopher Chippindale report our own experience at Antiquity in adding an electronic element to an established printed journal. Christopher Chippindale notes some key differences between print culture and electronic culture. Lynn Meskell looks at accounts of ancient Egypt offered on the Web as a case-study in how archaeological understanding relates to other visions.

Antiquity itself has had since 1996 a modest and growing Web aspect, and the whole of this Special section is on our Web page.

Sara Champion & Christopher Chippindale

Back to Top
Back to Past Antiquity