Medieval Archaeology


Medieval Archaeology is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal covering the archaeology of the medieval period, especially in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in 1957 by the Society for Medieval Archaeology and is published on their behalf by Taylor & Francis. The editor-in-chief is Aleks McClain.

History

In the mid-20th century, archaeology in Britain was dominated by interests in prehistory and the classical period. The Society for Medieval Archaeology was founded in the 1950s to share information about medieval archaeology, and to publish a journal similar to the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. The cost of producing the journal meant that external grants were needed early on, supplementing the society's membership fees. As a result, excavation reports were common especially in early volumes of the journal. Medieval Archaeology inspired the creation of other similarly themed academic journals, Archéologie mediévale, Zeitschrift für Archäologie des Mittelalters, and Archeologia Medievale.
To mark the Society for Medieval Archaeology's 50th anniversary in 2006, the first 50 volumes of Medieval Archaeology were made available online via the Archaeology Data Service and are free to access. In 2007, Medieval Archaeology began including abstracts translated into French, German, and Italian.

Martyn Jope Award

Since 2007, the Society has given the Martyn Jope Award to "the best novel interpretation, application of analytical method or presentation of new findings published in its journal".
In 1963, a double volume issue was printed as a printer's strike the previous year meant there had been no journal. Until 2015 the journal was published by Maney Publishing, which was acquired by Taylor & Francis who then took over production.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in: