Regional Introductions in Historical Archaeology

Readers of Historical Archaeology have certainly noticed the two shorter articles that open up the latest  issue of the journal (Vol 50.4). These are the articles on “Toward a South Asian Historical Archaeology” by Brian C. Wilson and Mark W. Hauser and “Historical Archaeology and Heritage in the Middle East: A Preliminary Overview” by Alasdair Brooks and Ruth Young. These are the first in a new series of articles in the journal of regional overview essays. Two more articles in the series are in the works and are slated to appear in the journal this year. These will be essays on eastern Africa by Jonathan Walz and southeast Asia by John Miksic.

I started this series in an effort to let readers know about historical archaeology being done in regions not typically represented in the journal and to bring greater awareness of Historical Archaeology and the SHA to researchers working there. I was inspired this by our discipline’s commitment to a global understanding of the modern era as well as our new publishing partnership with Springer, which will be giving us much greater worldwide exposure.

Obviously, it is a big world and there are many regions where historical archaeology is making excellent contribution outside of SHA’s traditional Americanist focus. If you are interested in contributing an article on recent research in your region of interest or would recommend a potential author for the series, please let me know!

Chris Matthews, editor

Historical Archaeology

shaeditor@gmail.com