Emerging from behind the paywall, the journal of Internet Archaeology provides free access to a wide range of archaeology papers for anyone, anywhere.
One of the great challenges that stands in the way of public access to history and archaeology is that many journals are locked away behind expensive pay-walls unless you're a part of a university. Luckily, an increasing number of journals are choosing to make their content Open Access to the public. A prime example of this process is the Council of British Archaeology's journal Internet Archaeology, available for free online here: https://intarch.ac.uk/
Although focusing primarily on English archaeology, the journal covers a broad range of time periods and approaches, and it's a great resource for researchers and those with a casual interest alike. It's worth remembering that this is an academic journal and that papers can therefore sometimes be conceptually hard to access: all papers are peer-reviewed and written by experts in the field, which ensures an incredibly high quality. This shouldn't put anyone off exploring the site though, and it's a great way to get into archaeology by reading what other researchers are up to, or getting some references or inspiration for your own research.
One of my favourite examples from the journal is Haldenby and Richard's paper The Viking Great Army and its Legacy: Plotting Settlement Shift Using Metal-detected Finds in volume 24. Focusing on Cottam in Yorkshire, this paper explores the archaeological footprint of the Viking settlers in the Danelaw through recording and plotting metal-detected finds across England. I've written elsewhere about Richard and Haldenby's 2018 article on a similar topic, from a broader country-wide approach, but I'd heavily recommend their work as an exciting and ground-breaking new trend in archaeology.
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NEW SERIES: Nickname of the Week
Check out my previous articles on Anglo-Saxon (here), Viking (here) and obscene (here) nicknames. A new Deep-Dive article on Interpreting the Emporia can be found here.
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