Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology

Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology
Title	Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology
Discipline	Archaeology
Abbreviation	J. Mediterr. Archaeol.
Publisher	Archaeopress for the University of Southampton (originally)
Country	United Kingdom
Frequency	Biannual (historically varies)
History	1988–present
Issn	0951-8967

Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology is a peer‑reviewed scholarly periodical dedicated to archaeological research across the Mediterranean basin. It publishes analytical reports, syntheses, and theoretical contributions that engage with fieldwork from sites in Greece, Italy, Egypt, Turkey, Spain and North Africa, while interfacing with work on the Levant, Cyprus, Malta and the Balkans. The journal serves as a forum connecting excavators, specialists and institutions such as the British School at Athens, the École Française d'Athènes, and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

History

Founded in 1988, the journal emerged amid renewed interest in Mediterranean prehistory and classical archaeology following influential projects at Knossos, Pompeii, Akrotiri and Çatalhöyük. Its early editorial direction reflected dialogues between scholars associated with the University of Southampton, the British Museum, the Institute of Archaeology (UCL) and national research councils such as the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Over successive decades editorial leadership included figures who had field affiliations with the British School at Rome, the Swedish Institute at Athens, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut and the French Institut national d'histoire de l'art. The journal has documented major campaigns and debates surrounding sites like Mycenae, Herculaneum, Gordion, Tell el‑Amarna and Ras Shamra.

Scope and Topics

The journal covers material culture studies, stratigraphic reports, ceramic seriation, survey archaeology, maritime archaeology, paleoenvironmental reconstruction and archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological analyses from the Mediterranean rim. Its pages have hosted studies integrating methods developed at institutions such as the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, the Università di Bologna, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Athens. Contributions intersect with debates on the Bronze Age collapse, Phoenician expansion, Greek colonization, Roman provincialism, Byzantine transformations and Islamic period continuities affecting sites including Ugarit, Carthage, Syracuse, Tarraco and Leptis Magna.

Editorial Board and Peer Review

The editorial board comprises internationally based archaeologists, ceramicists, numismatists and bioarchaeologists affiliated with universities and museums such as the University of Barcelona, the University of Padua, the American Numismatic Society, the Natural History Museum (London) and the Institut Català d’Arqueologia Clàssica. Submissions undergo anonymous peer review by external referees drawn from networks at Princeton University, Harvard University, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the École Pratique des Hautes Études and the University of Rome "La Sapienza". Editorial policies emphasize transparent reporting of stratigraphy, finds provenance, radiocarbon dating and geomorphological context, reflecting standards advanced by organizations like ICOMOS, UNESCO heritage practice and national antiquities services.

Publication Details and Format

Published on a biannual schedule with occasional special issues, each volume typically includes research articles, short reports, review essays and obituaries of prominent field directors. Articles present illustrations, plates, distribution maps and tables conforming to archaeological publication norms used in monographs from Oxford Archaeology, the Institute of Archaeology Press and Routledge volumes on Mediterranean studies. The journal accepts papers in English and has featured contributions from authors connected to the British School at Athens, the American Research Center in Egypt, the Spanish National Research Council and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Layouts frequently reproduce plan drawings, photogrammetry results, thin section micrographs and catalogues of finds, and include detailed appendices for ceramic typologies and radiocarbon datasets.

Abstracting and Indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in major bibliographic services and citation databases utilized by classical and Near Eastern studies, including Scopus, the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Current Contents, and Bibliography of the History of Art. It is also catalogued in library networks such as WorldCat and has entries in subject indexes maintained by the British Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Library of Congress. Abstracting facilitates discovery by scholars working on comparative projects at institutions such as the University of California, Berkeley, Leiden University, the University of Toronto and the Australian National University.

Impact and Reception

Scholarly reception has recognized the journal as a venue for detailed site reports and methodological advances in Mediterranean archaeology. Influential articles have been cited in monographs and edited volumes dealing with the Late Bronze Age, Archaic Greek colonization, Romanization and the early Islamic Mediterranean produced by publishers including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press and Brill. The journal is read by curators at the Ashmolean Museum, the National Archaeological Museum (Athens), the Museo Nazionale Romano and conservation specialists associated with UNESCO World Heritage sites such as Pompeii and the Acropolis, informing debates on chronology, conservation and heritage management.

Notable Articles and Special Issues

Special issues have gathered research on themes such as maritime connectivity in the Bronze Age, colonial interaction in the Western Mediterranean, landscape archaeology in Sicily, and agro‑pastoral economies in the Levant. Notable articles have provided major ceramic sequences for Mycenaean and Geometric periods, reassessments of Phoenician trade networks based on amphora typologies, reassessments of urbanism at Ptolemaic Alexandria, and new radiocarbon calibrations relevant to the collapse narratives for sites like Tiryns and Hattusa. Contributors have included researchers affiliated with SUNY Buffalo, the British Museum, the University of Sydney, the University of Leiden and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, ensuring cross‑regional dialogue and methodological exchange.

Category:Archaeology journals Category:Mediterranean archaeology