The SAA Archaeological Record

Launched in January 2001, The SAA Archaeological Record is issued five times a year. It is a four-color magazine encompassing SAA business, commentary, news, regular columns, opinions, and articles.

 

 

Subscriptions

As of January 2025, institutional subscriptions to the SAA Archaeological Record will no longer be available. Print subscriptions to the magazine will remain an SAA member benefit. Join today!

Questions? Contact [email protected].

List of Issues

Content Index

To view or download an up-to-date spreadsheet containing title, author, and publication information for all SAA Archaeological Record content from 2001 to the present, click here.

Submit an Article

Launched in January 2001, the SAA Archaeological Record is issued five times a year, and is now available in "dynamic edition" format on the SAA website. It is a four-color magazine encompassing SAA business, commentary, news, regular columns, job listings, opinions, forums, and articles. The magazine is not a peer-reviewed publication and does not currently have an editorial board. Each Editor volunteers to serve a three-year term and is selected by the SAA Board from among the SAA membership. The Managing Editor is a member of the SAA staff. The SAA Archaeological Record replaced the SAA Bulletin, which was published from 1993 to 2000. The SAA Publications Committee approved these guidelines in April 2012 at the Annual Meeting in Memphis, Tennessee.

Submissions may be sent to the Editor:
Todd Ahlman
[email protected]
Texas State University
Center for Archaeological Studies
601 University Drive, Trinity 120
San Marcos, TX 78666 USA

Submission Deadlines and Details
The SAA Archaeological Record publishes articles and forums of interest to the organization’s diverse membership and is the SAA’s primary way of proactively reaching all of its members with organizational news and business. Authors wishing to publish in the SAA Archaeological Record should consider the appeal of their topic to the SAA’s professional, avocational, and student membership, and are encouraged to contact the Editor regarding potential articles, forums, and ideas for publication. Submissions and inquiries should be sent to the current Editor. Contact information for the current Editor may be found inside the front page of each issue of the magazine and on the SAA website. Electronic copies of manuscripts are preferred. Manuscripts should be sent as Microsoft Word documents.

Deadlines for time-sensitive materials including Letters to the Editor, Obituaries, and pieces for “News and Notes” and the Calendar are as follows: November 1 (January), January 1 (March), March 1 (May), July 1 (September), and September 1 (November).

News and Notes and Calendar items are published on a space-available basis.

The Editor does not solicit obituaries for publication, but memorials of colleagues are welcomed as submissions to the magazine. Individuals wishing to write a memorial piece should contact the Editor as soon as they are able.

Book reviews are published in SAA journals and are not a feature of the SAA Archaeological Record.

The above deadlines do not apply to authors wishing to publish an article in or organize a forum for the magazine. Generally, articles are published in the order the Editor accepts them; however, the Editor reserves the right to publish accepted materials in a manner that enhances content and accommodates time-sensitive material from the SAA and its members. Most articles are published within a year of their acceptance.

Forums may be proposed at any time and should include an abstract as well as a list of potential contributors. The Editor will evaluate the proposal, and if accepted the forum will be scheduled for publication in a specific issue of the magazine. The Editor will issue a deadline for forum participants. Most forums are published within a year of their acceptance. It is the responsibility of the forum organizer/guest editor to communicate relevant policies and procedures to contributors, to collect the manuscripts from contributors and provide them to the Editor, and to review the manuscripts to be sure authors have followed the guidelines and style guide for the magazine prior to submitting them to the Editor.

Advertising and placement ads should be sent to the manager, Membership and Marketing ([email protected]).

Submission Lengths and Style Guide
Items for News and Notes and the Calendar should be between 50 and 150 words. Longer pieces and pieces with artwork cannot be accepted.

Obituaries should be kept to 650 words including selected bibliographies. Bibliographies will generally be published online only. A single photograph may accompany memorial pieces.

Article lengths vary, and authors are encouraged to contact the editor to negotiate an appropriate word count for their articles. Most articles are kept to fewer than 2,500 words, although occasionally items up to 4,500 words are accepted for publication. Longer articles generally are subjected to longer wait times for publication.

Because the SAA Archaeological Record is a magazine and not a peer-reviewed journal, authors are strongly encouraged to keep bibliographic citations to a minimum and to focus their content accordingly. If an extended bibliography is required, a selected bibliography may be published in the magazine and an author’s contact information furnished for those wishing to acquire a full list of citations.

The magazine does not publish abstracts, keywords, or summaries with articles, and these items do not need to be submitted.

Photographs and Images
High-quality color images are encouraged with each submission to the SAA Archaeological Record. The number of images is subject to approval by the Editor, but as a general rule between 3 and 5 images is considered ideal for the magazine format.

All photographs, images, and other figures submitted must be at least 300 dpi in resolution at 7 inches wide (4 megapixels). Written permission must be obtained from the copyright holder (usually the photographer), and also from each individual depicted in a recognizable fashion in the image. For further questions about copyright permissions, please contact the Managing Editor at [email protected]

Single images for the cover are welcome from all SAA members, whether or not they are authors in the magazine. Magazine images must also have at least a 300 dpi resolution when the image is expanded to a 9” × 12” size (2700 × 3600 pixels, or 9 megapixels).

Permissions

Please contact the manager, Publications, at [email protected]. You will need to provide the article title, volume, and issue (for the SAA Archaeological Record) or the book title, the page number(s) of the material, and a brief description (for the SAA Press). Note that in most cases, the permission of the original author will also need to be solicited (to be included on the permission request form that will be provided by SAA), and there will be a fee of $15.00 for the first page or significant part thereof, and $10.00 for each additional page or significant part thereof.

Style Guide

New in June 2017 and updated in December 2023, the Society for American Archaeology has released a fully revised and updated publication policy and style guide in English and Spanish. The new guide provides updated submission requirements and policies, as well as procedures as they relate to our publishing partner, Cambridge University Press. In the updated guide you will find more robust guidance regarding diversity and inclusivity in language and for citing Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge and various electronic sources (websites, blogs, etc.), updated protocols for certain formatting issues (e.g., references cited styling and including issue numbers for all periodicals), information regarding the requirement to document funding, data availability, and competing interests, and more. The submission and style requirements are effective immediately, so please be sure to carefully review the new guide before you submit a manuscript.

Download the PDFs here:

Editorial Policy, Information for Authors, and Style Guide for American Antiquity, Latin American Antiquity, and Advances in Archaeological Practice

or

Normas Editoriales, Información para los Autores y Guía Estilística para American Antiquity, Latin American Antiquity y Advances in Archaeological Practice

(If you do not have Acrobat, you can download it for free from the Adobe site.)

NEW

Authors are encouraged to use the Citation Style Language (CSL) supplied by the SAA for formatting their references. A CSL is a standardized format used to automate the consistent formatting of citations and bibliographies in academic writing. This file works seamlessly with reference management software like Zotero or Mendeley. The SAA's CSL file can be downloaded from https://www.zotero.org/styles?q=id%3Asociety-for-american-archaeology.

Advertise in The SAA Archaeological Record

Show off new products in the Society's four-color magazine, issued five times a year, encompassing SAA business, commentary, news, regular columns, software reviews, opinions, and articles.

Print and electronic editions are published simultaneously. Include a website with a digital ad and when readers click on it in the electronic edition, they will learn more online!

AVERAGE CIRCULATION
8,000 Society members, institutions, and libraries worldwide

ESTABLISHED
January 2001 (replacing the SAA Bulletin)

MAILED
Third Class / Not-for-profit

RATES

  1 Color
4 Color
Full Page $523 $578
Half Page $335 $367
Quarter Page Vertical $268 $284
Eighth Page Horizontal $128 $139
Covers 2 & 3 $735 $806

* Advertiser is responsible for any production cost incurred on behalf of advertiser
** A 15% discount is offered on five consecutive ads contracted for annually
*** The SAA reserves the right to reject an advertisement for any reason

SIZES

  Width   Height
Full Page (no bleed) 7" × 9.125"
Full Page (with bleed; add 0.125 bleed on all sides) 8" × 10.875"
Half Page Horizontal 7" × 4.5"
Half Page Vertical 3.375" × 9.125"
Quarter Page Vertical 3.375" × 4.5"
Eighth Page Horizontal 3.375" × 2.25

CLOSING DATES

  January March May September November
Insertion Order 11/26 01/27 03/19 07/23  09/24
Ad Copy 12/10 02/10 04/10 08/10  10/9

 

Ads can be reserved by completing the advertising application.  All ads should be submitted in PDF format without bleed or crop marks (unless ordering a full-page ad with bleed; see above) to [email protected].

 

Archive: The SAA Bulletin

The SAA Bulletin, which preceded The SAA Archaeological Record, was published between 1983 and 2000.

  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Number 2, March PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November| PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Number 2, March PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Number 2, March PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Number 2, March PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Number 2, March/April PDF
  • Number 1, January-February PDF
  • Number 5, November-December PDF
  • Number 4, September-October PDF
  • Number 3, June-July-August PDF
  • Number 2, March-April-May PDF
  • Number 1, January-February PDF
  • Number 5, November-December PDF
  • Number 4, September-October PDF
  • Number 3, June-July-August PDF
  • Number 2, March-April PDF
  • Number 1, January-February PDF
  • Number 5, November-December PDF
  • Number 4, September-October PDF
  • Number 3, June-July-August PDF
  • Number 2, March-April PDF
  • Number 1, January-February PDF
  • Number 5, November-December PDF
  • Number 4, September-October PDF
  • Number 3, June-July-August PDF
  • Number 2, March-May PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, June PDF
  • Number 2, March PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, June PDF
  • Number 2, April PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 6, November PDF
  • Number 5, September PDF
  • Number 4, June PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Number 2, March PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 6, November PDF
  • Number 5, September PDF
  • Number 4, July PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Number 2, March PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, July PDF
  • Number 2, May PDF
  • Number 1, March PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, June PDF
  • Number 2, MarchPDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, November PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, July PDF
  • Number 2, April PDF
  • Number 1, February PDF
  • Number 6, December PDF
  • Number 5, September PDF
  • Number 4, May PDF
  • Number 3, March PDF
  • Number 2, February PDF
  • Number 1, January PDF
  • Number 5, December PDF
  • Number 4, September PDF
  • Number 3, May PDF
  • Numbers 1 & 2, March PDF

Archaeologists Share What they Do

The Archiving the Archaeologists series is an oral history project of video interviews of archaeologists near retirement or already retired. Listen to real archaeologists reflect on their careers, how and why they became archaeologists, and their contributions to the discipline on the SAA YouTube channel.

Is the Past in Your Future?

Aimed at high school students, the Is the Past in Your Future?  [PDF 1.1 MB] brochure from the SAA provides brief information about a career in archaeology.

The National Historic Preservation Act

The National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966 is a federal law that protects archaeological resources in the United States. The What is the NPHA? [PDF 1.3 MB] fact-sheet from SAA helps explain the NHPA. It includes common misconceptions about the law and explains the Section 106 review process, which is particularly important to historic preservation.

Be an Archaeology Education Coordinator

If you are an SAA member interested in serving as your area's Archaeology Education Coordinator, please contact [email protected].

SAA Education and Outreach Awards

SAA gives out several archaeology education and outreach-related awards each year: the Distinguished Achievement in Public Archaeology Award, the Excellence in Public Archaeology Programming Award, the Outstanding Public Archaeology Initiative Award, the Binford Family Award for Teaching Scientific Reasoning in Archaeology, the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology Award for Archaeology And Education. Learn more about these awards, nominate a worthy individual or project, and view the past honorees!


Archaeology Education Newsletter Archive
1990-Present

SAA's archaeology education newsletter started as the Public Education Committee's print newsletter Archaeology & Public Education (A&PE). Running from 1990 to 1998, it featured news, events, and K-12 lesson plans aimed at expanding awareness of archaeology and heritage issues. It switched to a web format from 2000 to 2004. After a hiatus, it returned as Public Archaeology Notes (PAN) in 2016, managed by SAA's Archaeology Education Coordinators as a way to share news across regions.

Educational Videos

Looking for video content for your classroom? The SAA YouTube channel has short informational videos on a wide variety of topics, long-form interviews with archaeologists, and publicly-available online seminars.

State Archaeology Celebration Poster Contest

Does your state have an annual archaeology celebration? Submit a poster to the SAA State Archaeology Celebration Poster Contest! Learn more about the award and the submissions process.

SAA Committee on Repatriation

The Committee on Repatriation tracks national legislation, testifies at hearings when necessary, and represents SAA in discussions and negotiations on repatriation issues.

JOIN TODAY!

Join to lend your voice and your numbers to our efforts to ensure the archaeological record will exist for future generations.


Race, Inequality, and Decolonization

Please visit a selection of items on topics of race, inequality, and decolonization from The SAA Archaeological Record, Advances in Archaeological Practice, American Antiquity, and Latin American Antiquity.


Online Learning Archive

SAA members, log into the Member Center to access 30+ hours of free continuing education recordings. This is an exclusive member benefit.

Publicly-Available Recordings

Everyone can enjoy and learn from these events. See SAA's Continuing Education playlist on YouTube for publicly-available recordings of past lectures.

Have a Request?

The seminars we offer on-demand will change over time. If there is a past online seminar recording you'd like to view, please let us know at [email protected]. We can't guarantee that we can meet your request, but your input will help us make decisions about what to offer next.

Download the SAA Principles of Archaeological Ethics

In 1996, the SAA Executive Board adopted its Principles of Archaeological Ethics, and in 2016, membership voted to add a Principle No. 9. In 2018, the SAA Board created a series of task forces which culminated in a 2024 update to the Principles, which were adopted overwhelmingly by members on the January 2024 ballot. Download the most current SAA Principles of Archaeological Ethics [PDF 183 KB] to print or use for classrooms or training.