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Subfield · Social Sciences

Archeology research

Archeology is a subfield of Social Sciences. Science Explorer counts 16k research works in it since 1950. 10.7% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: study of the past via material culture.

Research works
16k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
2
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+21%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
18% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Archeology (Social Sciences)

Which countries lead Archeology research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, France and the United Kingdom rank highest in Archeology. By volume, the United States and France publish the most (444 and 420 works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 0.91× citation excellence · 1.52× journals · 100% breadth 10.1% top 10% · 374 works
  2. 2 France #2 all time 0.96× citation excellence · 1.27× journals · 100% breadth 5.4% top 10% · 391 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 0.93× citation excellence · 1.41× journals · 100% breadth 14.1% top 10% · 230 works
  4. 4 Türkiye #9 all time 0.83× citation excellence · 0.14× journals · 100% breadth 7.7% top 10% · 321 works
  5. 5 Russia #10 all time 0.57× citation excellence · 0.21× journals · 100% breadth 5.1% top 10% · 238 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 5 countries ranked in Archeology. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Archeology

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 444 works
  2. 2 France 420 works
  3. 3 Türkiye 342 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 265 works
  5. 5 Russia 256 works
  6. 6 South Africa 219 works
  7. 7 China 210 works
  8. 8 Germany 114 works
  9. 9 Australia 100 works
  10. 10 India 70 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 18.2%France: 17.2%Türkiye: 14.0%United Kingdom: 10.8%6 others listed: 39.7%18%largest
United States444 · 18.2%France420 · 17.2%Türkiye342 · 14.0%United Kingdom265 · 10.8%6 others listed968 · 39.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Archeology research?

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ranks first in Archeology on research quality in 2022-now, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #1 all time 5.3% top 10% · 187 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of Sciences Russia · Moscow · #5 all time 6.5% top 10% · 90 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 2 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Archeology.

Top 100 Archeology institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 198 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 99 works
  3. 3 University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 41 works
  4. 4 Department of ArchaeologySri Lanka 36 works
  5. 5 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 30 works
  6. 6 Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques PréventivesFrance 29 works
  7. 7 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 26 works
  8. 8 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 20 works
  9. 9 University of South AfricaSouth Africa 19 works
  10. 10 Oxford ArchaeologyUnited Kingdom 19 works

Who are the leading researchers in Archeology?

Counting only their work in Archeology, Lyn Wadley, Francesco d’Errico and J. Desmond Clark have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Lyn Wadley South Africa · #28,381 worldwide overall 18.7 of 31 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Francesco d’Errico France · #6,057 worldwide overall 13.0 of 18 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 J. Desmond Clark United States · #80,648 worldwide overall 10.5 of 21 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Marlize Lombard South Africa · #36,745 worldwide overall 9.6 of 19 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Shadreck Chirikure South Africa · #87,154 worldwide overall 10.6 of 31 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Christopher Stuart Henshilwood Norway · #27,294 worldwide overall 8.5 of 15 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Richard G. Klein United States · #13,430 worldwide overall 7.5 of 10 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 Nicholas J. Conard Germany · #31,423 worldwide overall 8.4 of 19 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Peter J. Mitchell United Kingdom · #394,560 worldwide overall 9.0 of 29 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Patrick Schmidt Germany · #230,979 worldwide overall 6.5 of 9 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Archeology alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 56,857 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Archeology researchers

What are the most cited papers in Archeology?

The most cited paper in Archeology is "The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior" (Sally McBrearty, Alison S. Brooks, 2000), with 2,725 citations. Next come "New Method of Collagen Extraction for Radiocarbon Dating" (1,854) and "Occult economies and the violence of abstraction: notes from the South African postcolony" (1,531).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior Sally McBrearty, Alison S. Brooks · Journal of Human Evolution Nov 2000 2,725
2 New Method of Collagen Extraction for Radiocarbon Dating R. Longin · Nature Mar 1971 1,854
3 Occult economies and the violence of abstraction: notes from the South African postcolony Jean Comaroff, John Comaroff · American Ethnologist May 1999 1,531
4 Archaeology as Anthropology Lewis R. Binford · American Antiquity Oct 1962 1,495
5 Archaeological Context and Systemic Context Michael Brian Schiffer · American Antiquity Apr 1972 1,136
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Archeology research done?

The largest centres of Archeology research in 2022-now are Paris (France), Beijing (China), Moscow (Russia) and Johannesburg (South Africa). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Metz, Colombo and Yerevan.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 ParisFrance 109 works
  2. 2 BeijingChina 106 works
  3. 3 MoscowRussia 78 works
  4. 4 JohannesburgSouth Africa 73 works
  5. 5 LondonUnited Kingdom 64 works
  6. 6 IstanbulTürkiye 52 works
  7. 7 AnkaraTürkiye 52 works
  8. 8 PretoriaSouth Africa 44 works
  9. 9 OxfordUnited Kingdom 41 works
  10. 10 ColomboSri Lanka 39 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. MetzFR · 29.4 works127×
  2. ColomboLK · 38.6 works21×
  3. YerevanAM · 32.9 works20×
  4. JohannesburgZA · 72.9 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Archeology than the world average.

See Archeology on the map

Archeology research by country

The best places for Archeology research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Archeology?

Among universities, judged by research, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Science and Technology Beijing and University of Johannesburg score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 18.72%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →TU WienUniversity of Scienc…University of Johann…University of the Wi…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 81.2- (#2)12.4%30.4×42 -32.5%
2University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 40.1-33.8%10.7×26 +597.0%
3University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 34.9-14.7%15.0×30 +71.1%
4TU WienAustria 33.8-35.3%8.2×8 +140.4%
5University of TübingenGermany 33.5-27.1%8.1×11 +10.9%
6University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 31.9-22.3%4.3×16 +14.8%
7University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 29.6-10.5%4.5×20 +62.7%
8University of Cape TownSouth Africa 25.0- (#3)11.3%13.9×15 -5.1%
9University of South AfricaSouth Africa 22.7-6.8%14.1×19 +53.4%
10Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli UniversityTürkiye 22.0-13.0%29.6×13 +382.4%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Archeology, country by country

Is Archeology research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 21% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts and Archaeology and Rock Art Studies.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Archeology as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.016% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Archeology0.016% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Archeology over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Archeology10.3% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

What does Archeology include?

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Who leads Archeology, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Archeology, for a post or a slide.

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1200 × 630 PNG, sized for social posts, drawn from the latest snapshot.

The leading institutions' badges2Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Discussion

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