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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. 24.1% 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%
3.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
24.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
2
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+42%
the tick is no change

Which countries lead Archeology research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, the United States, France and the United Kingdom rank highest in Archeology. By volume, France and the United States publish the most (391 and 374 works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 United States · #1 all time 21.9% top 10% · 374 works
  2. 2 France · #4 all time 11.6% top 10% · 391 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom · #3 all time 22.2% top 10% · 230 works
  4. 4 Türkiye · #9 all time 14.6% top 10% · 321 works
  5. 5 Russia · #8 all time 10.8% top 10% · 238 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 5 countries ranked in Archeology. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Archeology

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 France 391 works
  2. 2 United States 374 works
  3. 3 Türkiye 321 works
  4. 4 Russia 239 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 231 works
  6. 6 South Africa 182 works
  7. 7 China 180 works
  8. 8 Germany 97 works
  9. 9 Australia 86 works
  10. 10 India 56 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.

France: 18.1%United States: 17.3%Türkiye: 14.9%Russia: 11.1%6 others listed: 38.6%18%largest
France391 · 18.1%United States374 · 17.3%Türkiye321 · 14.9%Russia239 · 11.1%6 others listed832 · 38.6%

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

Which institutions lead Archeology research?

By volume in 2022–2025, University of the Witwatersrand publishes the most Archeology research, followed by Department of Archaeology and Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives.

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 35 works
  2. 2 Department of ArchaeologySri Lanka 32 works
  3. 3 Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques PréventivesFrance 28 works
  4. 4 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 25 works
  5. 5 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 25 works
  6. 6 Travaux et Recherches Archéologiques sur les Cultures, les Espaces et les SociétésFrance 23 works
  7. 7 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 22 works
  8. 8 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 17 works
  9. 9 Oxford ArchaeologyUnited Kingdom 17 works
  10. 10 Institut de Recherche sur les ArchéoMATériauxFrance 16 works

Who are the leading researchers in Archeology?

Among the most productive authors in Archeology, Lawrence Freedman, John C. Campbell and J. van der Plicht rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Lawrence Freedman United Kingdom · #179 worldwide 1.2k citations · 214 works
  2. 2 John C. Campbell United States · #555 worldwide 1.3k citations · 341 works
  3. 3 J. van der Plicht Netherlands · #1,632 worldwide 1.8k citations · 110 works
  4. 4 Tim Ingold United Kingdom · #1,942 worldwide 944 citations · 115 works
  5. 5 Christopher Bronk Ramsey United Kingdom · #2,257 worldwide 2.4k citations · 79 works
  6. 6 James E. Austin Germany · #2,527 worldwide 712 citations · 97 works
  7. 7 Paul J. Steinhardt United States · #2,985 worldwide 2.3k citations · 109 works
  8. 8 Herman Feshbach United States · #3,426 worldwide 1.1k citations · 75 works
  9. 9 A. L. Kroeber United States · #3,778 worldwide 689 citations · 116 works
  10. 10 Stephen J. Page United States · #7,740 worldwide 777 citations · 122 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 2,099 highest-output authors in Archeology. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Archeology researchers

Where is Archeology research done?

The largest centres of Archeology research in 2022–2025 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, Yerevan and Colombo.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Paris France 98 works
  2. 2 Beijing China 98 works
  3. 3 Moscow Russia 73 works
  4. 4 Johannesburg South Africa 61 works
  5. 5 London United Kingdom 55 works
  6. 6 Istanbul Türkiye 51 works
  7. 7 Ankara Türkiye 48 works
  8. 8 Pretoria South Africa 35 works
  9. 9 Oxford United Kingdom 35 works
  10. 10 Toulouse France 35 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. MetzFR · 28.4 works132×
  2. YerevanAM · 32.2 works23×
  3. ColomboLK · 32.2 works20×
← 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 Johannesburg and University of Pretoria score highest, combining 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%60%mean 30.68%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →University of the Witwatersrand: 35, 40.2%University of Johannesburg: 25, 30.0%University of Pretoria: 16, 25.0%University of Cape Town: 13, 35.5%University of Tübingen: 8, 53.0%University of Cambridge: 14, 53.4%University of South Africa: 15, 20.8%Nelson Mandela University: 11, 19.2%Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University: 12, 20.5%University of Science and Technology Beijing: 25, 9.2%University of the Wi…University of Cape T…University of Johann…University of Pretoria
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1 University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa 79.140.2%26.9×35 +34.6%
2 University of JohannesburgSouth Africa 70.430.0%12.9×25 +63.8%
3 University of PretoriaSouth Africa 64.025.0%11.9×16 +122.2%
4 University of Cape TownSouth Africa 62.235.5%13.2×13 -4.0%
5 University of TübingenGermany 61.153.0%7.2×8 +93.3%
6 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 54.853.4%4.1×14 +16.0%
7 University of South AfricaSouth Africa 54.720.8%10.7×15 +50.4%
8 Nelson Mandela UniversitySouth Africa 52.119.2%33.6×11 +72.5%
9 Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli UniversityTürkiye 48.820.5%27.2×12 —
10 University of Science and Technology BeijingChina 48.09.2%10.1×25 -58.8%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Archeology research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 42% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Archaeology and Rock Art Studies and Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

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

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?