Recent past decades have seen vast changes in the study of archaeology, in its goals; in its methods and practices; in its practitioners; in the laws governing it; and in its relationship with the public. The profession has seen many theoretical developments since the mid-1970s, and there have been many new discoveries and much learned about the past. However, the most remarkable alterations in archaeology include the technological advances used in the course of field and laboratory research; the context of the research within the modern world of developing nations; and the gender, age, and ethnicity of those who conduct it. These changes have significantly altered the profession far beyond its content.
As in the past, much field and laboratory research throughout the world continues to be conducted through academic field schools and government and university-funded projects. Long-running university-or museum-based projects are well situated to answer specific research questions and develop multidisciplinary international programs that press forward the field while at the same time training the next generation of archaeologists. Recent changes in the field affecting academic research have been by and large technologically driven, by improvements in communication and data collection and analysis. One significant change has been the increase in the frequency of joint international research projects; today it is expected that a university-based program working in a foreign country will partner with academics from that country.
However, from a primarily academic and museum-oriented profession of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the field of archaeology as a whole has begun to evolve primarily into a heritage management profession. This is not a result of the decrease of the number or complexity of academic projects, but rather the promulgation of non-academic-based research in the form of cultural resource management (CRM).
The developed world has seen increases in population, education, and communication over the past 30 years. These increases have led people and governments in the developed countries to recognize both the importance of cultural heritage and the damage caused by continuing construction. As heritage management tasks preserving archaeological and other cultural resources increase, they take in an ever-growing number of employed archaeologists, conducting an ever-growing number of excavation projects and absorbing an ever-increasing amount of funding. The shifting needs of the profession are increasing the demand for a different set of skills to operate in this new climate. Changes in pedagogy have been slower to develop but show some progress in recent years.
In addition, the vast changes wrought in the world by the development of the World Wide Web and the Internet have also altered the profession of archaeology, including everything from how data is recorded to how information is shared with colleagues and with the public at large (see Internet, Archaeology on). These changes permeate the profession, not only making new demands on data storage but also changing how archaeology is perceived and practiced in ways both unforeseen and unforeseeable. Access to information previously kept within the walls of academe has empowered people outside the profession to affect archaeology, whether it is in funding, materials handling, or interpretation. Alternative viewpoints from underserved populations such as minorities and indigenous peoples in the developed world and governments and communities in the developing world have enriched archaeology. At the same time, these changes have posed great challenges to longstanding museum collections and the publication of created information streams.
World History
