Cite this as: Sloane, B. 2026 'Legacy and Springboard: The Untapped Potential of Archaeological Archives for Scientific Innovation', Internet Archaeology 72. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.72.11
Archaeological archives form a public resource that enables the reinterpretation of original findings from archaeological investigations, provides the raw material for further research, informs museum displays and teaching collections, and gives society access to the evidence for our shared past. But archaeological archives have remarkable potential to support research in other disciplines and in so doing help meet a number of global challenges. This paper provides case studies of this potential and sets out some suggestions as to how this knowledge dividend can be unleashed to create tangible public benefit.
Corresponding author: Barney Sloane
[email protected]
Historic England
Figure 1: Archaeological archives contain enormous untapped potential for driving scientific innovation in response to global challenges. LFA Sachsen, Dresden, Germany, 2019, by Christoph Blesl.
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