Subfield · Archeology
Most cited papers in Archeology (Social Sciences)
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).
Showing 50 of 100 papers. Every paper with more than 264 citations is listed.
| # | Paper | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 6 | Emergence of Modern Human Behavior: Middle Stone Age Engravings from South Africa Christopher Stuart Henshilwood, Francesco d’Errico, Royden Yates et al. · Science | 15 Feb 2002 | 992 |
| 7 | Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene Curtis W. Marean, Miryam Bar‐Matthews, Jocelyn Bernatchez et al. · Nature | Oct 2007 | 953 |
| 8 | Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology of time Geoff N. Bailey · Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | 24 Oct 2006 | 903 |
| 9 | Style and Social Information in Kalahari San Projectile Points Polly Wiessner · American Antiquity | Apr 1983 | 873 |
| 10 | Toward an Ecology of Materials Tim Ingold · Annual Review of Anthropology | 27 Sep 2010 | 831 |
| 11 | The Cimmeride Orogenic System and the Tectonics of Eurasia A. M. Celâl Şengör · Geological Society of America Special Papers | 1984 | 826 |
| 12 | Products of steel slags an opportunity to save natural resources H Motz, Jürgen Geiseler · Waste Management | Jun 2001 | 823 |
| 13 | Rainfall and drought in equatorial east Africa during the past 1,100 years Dirk Verschuren, Kathleen R. Laird, Brian F. Cumming · Nature | 2000 | 731 |
| 14 | Interstitials and Vacancies in α Iron ROBERT ALAN JOHNSON · Physical Review | Jun 1964 | 723 |
| 15 | Superplasticity—Recent advances and future directions OLEG D. SHERBY, Jeffrey Wadsworth · Progress in Materials Science | 1989 | 686 |
| 16 | African magmatism and tectonics Paul M. Clifford · Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta | Apr 1971 | 647 |
| 17 | Engraved ochres from the Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa Christopher Stuart Henshilwood, Francesco d’Errico, IAN E. M. WATTS · Journal of Human Evolution | Jun 2009 | 635 |
| 18 | Geomorphic evolution of Southern Africa since the Mesozoic Timothy C. Partridge, R. R. Maud · South African Journal of Geology | Jun 1987 | 634 |
| 19 | New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany Nicholas J. Conard, Maria Malina, Susanne C. Münzel · Nature | 24 Jun 2009 | 633 |
| 20 | 2.5-million-year-old stone tools from Gona, Ethiopia Sileshi Semaw, Paul Randall Renne, John W.K. Harris et al. · Nature | 1997 | 626 |
| 21 | Middle Stone Age Shell Beads from South Africa Christopher Stuart Henshilwood, Francesco d’Errico, Marian Vanhaeren et al. · Science | 15 Apr 2004 | 618 |
| 22 | Fire As an Engineering Tool of Early Modern Humans Kyle S. Brown, Curtis W. Marean, Andy I.R. Herries et al. · Science | 14 Aug 2009 | 590 |
| 23 | Ages for the Middle Stone Age of Southern Africa: Implications for Human Behavior and Dispersal Zenobia L. Jacobs, Richard G. Roberts, R. F. Galbraith et al. · Science | 30 Oct 2008 | 535 |
| 24 | Archaeological Systematics and the Study of Culture Process Lewis R. Binford · American Antiquity | Oct 1965 | 533 |
| 25 | High-strength Damascus steel by additive manufacturing Philipp Kürnsteiner, Markus Benjamin Wilms, Andreas Weisheit et al. · Nature | 24 Jun 2020 | 515 |
| 26 | Archaeological Evidence for the Emergence of Language, Symbolism, and Music–An Alternative Multidisciplinary Perspective Francesco d’Errico, Christopher Stuart Henshilwood, Graeme Lawson et al. · Journal of World Prehistory | Mar 2003 | 515 |
| 27 | Monumental architecture: A thermodynamic explanation of symbolic behaviour Bruce G. Trigger · World Archaeology | Oct 1990 | 498 |
| 28 | Chronology of the Later Stone Age and Food Production in East Africa Stanley H. Ambrose · Journal of Archaeological Science | Apr 1998 | 490 |
| 29 | Embers of society: Firelight talk among the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen Polly Wiessner · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 22 Sep 2014 | 488 |
| 30 | Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals Rébecca Grollemund, Simon Branford, Koen A. G. Bostoen et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 14 Sep 2015 | 487 |
| 31 | An early bone tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language Christopher Stuart Henshilwood, Francesco d’Errico, Curtis W. Marean et al. · Journal of Human Evolution | Dec 2001 | 478 |
| 32 | East African megadroughts between 135 and 75 thousand years ago and bearing on early-modern human origins Christopher A. Scholz, Thomas C. Johnson, Andrew S. Cohen et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 4 Sep 2007 | 474 |
| 33 | Guns, Germs, and Steel. The Fate of Human Societies Christopher Miller · Economic Botany | Apr 2002 | 468 |
| 34 | Implications for complex cognition from the hafting of tools with compound adhesives in the Middle Stone Age, South Africa Lyn Wadley, Tamaryn Hodgskiss, Michael D. Grant · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 11 May 2009 | 467 |
| 35 | Blombos Cave, Southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary Report on the 1992–1999 Excavations of the Middle Stone Age Levels Christopher Stuart Henshilwood, Judith C. Sealy, Royden Yates et al. · Journal of Archaeological Science | Apr 2001 | 463 |
| 36 | Stylistic Variation in Evolutionary Perspective: Inferences from Decorative Diversity and Interassemblage Distance in Illinois Woodland Ceramic Assemblages Fraser D. Neiman · American Antiquity | 1995 | 456 |
| 37 | Synthesis of a Vocal Sound from the 3,000 year old Mummy, Nesyamun ‘True of Voice’ David M. Howard, J. Edward Schofield, Janet M. Fletcher et al. · Scientific Reports | 23 Jan 2020 | 453 |
| 38 | Early evidence of San material culture represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa Francesco d’Errico, Lucinda Backwell, Paola Villa et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 30 Jul 2012 | 452 |
| 39 | Recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head John M. Harlow, Edgar Miller · History of Psychiatry | Jun 1993 | 435 |
| 40 | Economy and Society in Pre-Industrial South Africa Donald Denoon · African Affairs | Jul 1981 | 432 |
| 41 | Macro and Micro Wear Traces on Lithic Projectile Points Anders Fischer, Peter Vemming Hansen, Peter Rasmussen · Journal of Danish Archaeology | 1984 | 427 |
| 42 | Long-distance stone transport and pigment use in the earliest Middle Stone Age Alison S. Brooks, John E. Yellen, Richard Potts et al. · Science | 15 Mar 2018 | 419 |
| 43 | Metallography and Microstructure of Ancient and Historic Metals Andrew Oddy, DAVID A. SCOTT · Studies in Conservation | Nov 1992 | 412 |
| 44 | A Howiesons Poort tradition of engraving ostrich eggshell containers dated to 60,000 years ago at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa Pierre-Jean Texier, Guillaume Porraz, John E. Parkington et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | Mar 2010 | 404 |
| 45 | A female figurine from the basal Aurignacian of Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany Nicholas J. Conard · Nature | May 2009 | 404 |
| 46 | Atomic structure of the binary icosahedral Yb–Cd quasicrystal Hiroyuki Takakura, Cesar Pay Gómez, Akiji Yamamoto et al. · Nature Materials | 10 Dec 2006 | 381 |
| 47 | Practical and prestige technologies: The evolution of material systems Brian D. Hayden · Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory | Mar 1998 | 378 |
| 48 | The Emergence of Ornaments and Art: An Archaeological Perspective on the Origins of “Behavioral Modernity” Joào Zilhão · Journal of Archaeological Research | 30 Jan 2007 | 363 |
| 49 | Earliest magmatism in Ethiopia: Evidence for two mantle plumes in one flood basalt province Rhiannon George, Nick W. Rogers, Simon Kelley · Geology | 1998 | 361 |
| 50 | Pathways to Power Brian D. Hayden · Fundamental issues in archaeology | 1995 | 354 |
Citations are OpenAlex's own counts, from its 2026-09-23 snapshot, so the ranking can differ from Google Scholar or Web of Science. A paper is listed for a field when OpenAlex files it under one of the field's topics; retracted papers and papers whose citation count cannot be traced to citing works are left out, and a preprint and the article it became are shown once. Release dates are OpenAlex's: where a source gave only a month or a year, that is what is shown. How the lists are chosen.