Although the benefits of open research are widely recognized by archaeologists, the field lags behind existing guidelines in its adoption of open data, methods, and outputs. We investigate this disciplinary paradox through semi-structured interviews with 28 archaeologists in academic roles. Our interviews examined the impact of definitions and attitudes, perceived costs and risks of open data, data diversity, and research evaluations and resources. Our findings show that even though archaeologists acknowledge the benefits of openness for scholarship, they are also aware of the time, money, and labor costs incurred by making data and outputs open and are concerned about the risks of data scooping and research misinterpretation. The diversity of archaeological data—particularly the absence of widely adopted standardization systems—was likewise perceived as an impediment to openness. Finally, archaeologists highlighted research evaluation systems, job security, and resource variability as affecting their ability to engage in open research practices.

The British solicitor Edwin Freshfield was a wealthy collector with a passion for Byzantine antiquities. Among the Byzantine capitals that he acquired from the 1870s onwards are three originally from the church of St John in Ephesos. By examining the means by which these objects were acquired, this article sheds light on Freshfield’s interest in Asia Minor. Unpublished archival material suggests his pioneering role in the archaeological rediscovery of the church of St John, which scholarship on Late Antiquity and Byzantium has so far entirely forgotten. In the context of the British interest in the eastern Mediterranean, Freshfield’s activity illustrates how economic and collecting impulses were not exclusive motives. His collection mirrors his religious identity and his desire to connect the Anglican Church to the origins of the Christian faith, through the ‘preservation’ of the Byzantine past.

For millennia, Indigenous fisher-hunter-gatherer populations across the globe have navigated the complexities and sensitivities of estuarine ecosystems, leaving robust archaeological and ecological records of long-term, adaptive histories anchored by complex political, economic, and social forms. Regarding the broad, interdisciplinary literature of hunter-gatherer studies, archaeologists in particular have begun to address the undertheorized category of overtly sedentary hunter-gatherer communities and the ways that these societies were able to grow and persist sustainably. This research builds on recent studies investigating the long-term impacts of humans in estuarine environments, contributing a critical, small-scale perspective that expands and complements more recent regional approaches. In doing so, this study presents the largest analysis via the archaeological record of oyster resource management practices at a single Native American village yet to be conducted to evaluate community-scale sustainability among sedentary fisher-hunter-gatherers. More specifically, it investigates the growth of one of the largest Ancestral Muskogean towns to have existed along the Atlantic coast—on Ossabaw Island, Georgia—and the ways that people managed shellfisheries in the face of growing demographic pressures on both local ecologies and social, political, and economic institutions. Leveraging absolute chronologies and a shellfish morphometric dataset from two dozen domestic middens, sustainable resource management practices are evaluated across a single community’s history.

Photographs of a previously unpublished Maya vase, smuggled out of Belize in 1979, reside in the Image Collections and Fieldwork Archives at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. This vase, alongside dozens of others that I cataloged in the Dumbarton Oaks archives, is an example of the so-called “Holmul Dancer theme” in Maya ceramics. Re-examining this tradition in light of the new information from the vase, and from other recent discoveries, reveals how ceramic artists of the early ninth century used the dancing maize god as an allegory for the political landscape they witnessed rapidly changing around them. The vase also provides a case study in the potentially salubrious outcomes of archival and provenance research on looted materials. Should the vessel ever re-emerge, this research provides supporting evidence necessary to repatriate it to Belize.

This work presents a macroregional review of all known geochemical groups and natural obsidian deposits in Argentinian and Chilean Patagonia. After reviewing archaeological and geological antecedents, we compiled information about the geochemical groups, their locations, and the most outstanding characteristics of the obsidian deposits in this area. We found 30 geochemical groups and more than 50 obsidian deposits in Patagonian territory; most were already known from archaeological studies, but eight had been identified only in geological reports and had not been archaeologically discussed. Nine deposits are still geochemically unknown. We observed significant variations in the locations of the deposits and the distribution of the geochemical types and recommend that geoarchaeological-based programs be developed to enhance the scope of our findings.

Since 2015, Danish school children have been able to explore science and research in their free time. Behind this initiative stands the Copenhagen-based NGO Videnskabsklubben (English: Science Club), which facilitates science programs running for seven weeks on an annual basis. What began as a series of clubs focused on the natural sciences has, as of 2024, expanded to include the humanities, with the launch of a nationwide archaeology program for pupils in the fourth and fifth grades (ages 10–12). The archaeology program was developed by archaeologists at the Centre for Urban Network Evolutions at Aarhus University. This article introduces the archaeology program as a best practice example of educational outreach. It also introduces the concept of Videnskabsklubben and examines the specific challenges and opportunities of integrating archaeology into a classroom setting. By this it hopefully inspires archaeologists and educators alike to initiate research-based activities within the humanities for school children.