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The first edition of the journal World Archaeology appeared in June 1969, and the opening issue set out the journal’s objectives concisely: “to synthesize the best contemporary thought on matters of common interest to archaeologists the world over. It is the voice, essentially, of a fresh generation of professional archaeologists.” With those words, the founders of the journal allied themselves with the methodological revolution that was affecting Anglo-American archaeology during the late 1960s. This stance is particularly clear because they described World Archaeology as “designedly a journal of debate” and sought to organize the contents of most issues around a clearly defined theme.
From the start, the journal was run from England, and only occasionally has it drawn on editors outside the British Isles. Until recently, most of the editors have been associated with the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, or London and have represented the archaeology of those parts of the world in which they have had special interests.
The journal has retained its thematic character, although the nature of the topics selected for particular issues have changed over the years. Early issues tackled broad themes such as subsistence, population, and trade, and sometimes they were concerned with questions that only became really topical some years later, such as archaeology and linguistics. After the first decade, however, the topics became rather more specific, and there was greater emphasis on empirical data and on particular analytical techniques. On the one hand, there were issues concerned with such topics as waste management, ceramics, or archaeology and musical instruments; on the other hand, there were groups of papers on early chemical technology and photogrammetry.
More recent editions of the journal show a subtle change of direction. There is less emphasis on appointing editors to represent particular areas of the world, and some issues have returned to the broader themes first explored in the early years of the journal, such as architectural innovation, craft production, and specialization or concepts of time and the ancient world.
There have also been changes in the authors writing articles for World Archaeology. Although contributors who were relative newcomers to archaeology were always encouraged, the early issues contain the names of many people whose careers were already well established. For example, françois bordes, j. desmond clark, mary leakey, Colin Renfrew, Jeremy Sabloff, and Bruce Trigger all contributed to World Archaeology during its first five years. Others were soon to make international reputations for themselves, indeed, the very first issue contained an early article by African prehistoric archaeologist glyn isaac. Relatively few of the contributors to the early editions of World Archaeology are still writing for the journal, although there are exceptions such as Charles Higham and Bruce Trigger. More of the articles are submitted by graduate students or by archaeologists who are just beginning their careers.
Last, there have been striking changes in the regions discussed in the journal. Not surprisingly, more articles are concerned with Europe than with other areas (approximately a third), but in the first ten years World Archaeology was published, a substantial number of articles also discussed material concerning Africa, mesoamerica, and South America. Over the next decade, however, the proportion of articles concerned with the New World declined, probably because other journals had been established dealing with just those areas, and World Archaeology carried significantly more articles discussing material from the Near East and Southeast Asia. Throughout its history, the journal has published relatively few articles concerning India, Australia, the united states, or the Pacific, although there are signs that the balance may have started to shift. No doubt there will be many more changes over the next quarter century, for the “journal of debate,” which was such a radical venture in 1969, still has a role to fulfill.
See also
Antiquity; World Archaeological Congress
(1588–1654)
Ole Worm was born in denmark and educated at the University of Copenhagen. He was successively professor of pedagogy, Greek, physics,
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