antiquity.ac.uk

What is Antiquity Journal?

Antiquity Journal is a long-running academic archaeology journal, published by Cambridge University Press, that combines peer-reviewed research with news, book reviews and shorter project reports. Its website at Antiquity Journal is both a showcase for that content and the entry point for authors, reviewers and readers.

Its main sections reflect different levels of depth and formality:

• Research articles — the core peer-reviewed content, including an open-access strand ("Antiquity Open") that makes a large body of research and debate free to read.
• Project Gallery — short, accessible articles on current archaeological work worldwide, useful for quick updates on excavations and surveys that may not yet warrant a full paper.
• Books and reviews — book reviews, review articles and the New Book Chronicle, plus guidance on submitting a book for review.
• News — brief reports on recent discoveries, such as the Iron Age iron bar assemblage found during gravel extraction in Europe or Mesolithic fishing traps in the mountains of southern Norway.
• Submit an article — submission guidelines and information on the journal's editorial processes for authors.

Who it suits: archaeology students and researchers who need peer-reviewed literature and reviews; field archaeologists who want concise project updates; and journalists or curious readers who want reliable summaries of new discoveries. If you need fast, plain-language summaries, the Project Gallery and News sections are the better starting points; if you need citable scholarship, go to the research articles.

Trade-off to weigh: the journal's breadth means some material is highly technical and assumes disciplinary background, while the shorter formats trade detail for accessibility. Subscription may be required for some content, though the open-access strand reduces that barrier.

A practical next step: decide whether you are reading, reviewing or submitting, then go straight to the matching section rather than browsing the homepage. For example, if you are an author, read the submission guidelines before drafting, since format and editorial expectations are set out there.

How do I submit an article to Antiquity Journal?

Submit through the journal's own author-guidance pages, not by emailing an editor directly. Antiquity Journal links its submission guidelines and editorial-process details from the "Submit an article" section of the site; start there and read the guidelines in full before preparing anything.

What to prepare before you submit

• A manuscript that matches the journal's scope: archaeology and related research, written for an international readership.
• The correct article type. Antiquity publishes full research articles, shorter Project Gallery pieces, and book reviews or review articles, and these have different expectations for length and framing.
• Figures, permissions and any supplementary material organised as the guidelines require.
• A cover letter or abstract that states the research question, the evidence and why the result matters beyond one site or region.

Choosing the right route

A practical next step

Read two or three recent articles in the section you are targeting, including one from the current issue, and check that your draft's length, citation style and level of argument match. Then work through the submission checklist item by item. If your work is at an early stage, the Project Gallery is often the more realistic first target; if it is a finished study with broad implications, aim for a full article.

What are Antiquity Open articles and are they free to read?

Antiquity Open is the journal's collection of research and debate articles that are free to read, according to the site's own description. Rather than a separate journal, it functions as an open-access section within Antiquity, alongside the journal's other content types.

What you'll find there

The site describes Antiquity Open as offering "hundreds of free-to-read research and debate articles." That makes it most useful if you want to sample the journal's scholarship, follow a debate, or read up on a topic without a subscription. It sits alongside other sections with different purposes:

• Books and reviews — current and archived book reviews, review articles and the New Book Chronicle, plus guidance on submitting a book for review.
• Project Gallery — short, accessible articles on current archaeological topics worldwide.
• Submit an article — author guidelines and details of the editorial process.
• News — short reports on new findings, such as the Iron Age iron bar assemblage or Mesolithic fish traps in Norway.

Free to read vs. subscribing

Free-to-read applies to Antiquity Open articles specifically; the journal also offers a subscription route, so not everything on the site is necessarily open. If your priority is reading without paying, start with Antiquity Open and the Project Gallery; if you need the full journal run, expect to use the subscription option.

Next step: if you're deciding where to send your own work, check whether your article fits the open section or the standard submission route by reading the guidelines under "Submit an article" before you draft. For a quick sense of the journal's range, browse the Antiquity Open list and a recent issue's contents side by side.

What is the Project Gallery and what kind of articles does it publish?

The Project Gallery is Antiquity's section for short, accessible articles on current archaeological topics from around the world. The journal describes it as a place for concise contributions rather than full-length research papers, which makes it a useful outlet for preliminary findings, ongoing fieldwork, regional discoveries and debates that benefit from quick publication.

What that means in practice

• Articles are brief and written for a broad archaeological readership, not only specialists in one subfield.
• Topics are geographically open — the journal frames the section as covering work "from around the world."
• The emphasis is on currency: current excavations, new finds and live questions rather than retrospective synthesis.

Who uses it

Field directors and project teams often want a citable, dated report on a season's work before a full monograph or journal article appears. Researchers working on under-published regions may find the format suits material that is significant but not extensive enough for a standard paper. Readers — including students and archaeologists outside the region — use it as a quick way to track what is happening internationally.

Deciding whether it fits your work

Ask whether your core contribution can be communicated in a short format without losing the evidence a reader needs. If the argument depends on lengthy stratigraphic detail, extensive data tables or a full methodological defence, a standard Antiquity article is the better route. If the value lies in announcing a find, a method or a regional development and pointing readers to fuller work later, the Project Gallery is designed for exactly that.

For submission requirements, check the journal's author guidelines before drafting, since length limits and formatting expectations are specific to the section. Antiquity Journal

How can I submit a book for review in Antiquity?

Use the journal's book-review submission route rather than the general article-submission system. Antiquity's site lists "Books and reviews" as a distinct section, with instructions for submitting a book for review; that is the page to follow.

What to do next

1. Go to Antiquity Journal and open the Books and reviews section.
2. Read the submission instructions there before sending anything.
3. Contact the book reviews editor with the book's details and your proposal, following whatever format the page specifies.
4. If the page does not give a direct contact, use the journal's general editorial contact and ask to be routed to the reviews editor.

What to include in your initial enquiry

• Author(s) or editor(s) and full title
• Publisher and publication year
• A short summary of the book's argument and its relevance to archaeology
• Your role (author, editor, publisher, or publicist) and whether you are offering a review copy

Practical points

• Review coverage is editorial, not guaranteed; the reviews editor decides what fits the journal's scope and current review pipeline.
• Send an enquiry before posting a physical copy, so you do not send books that will not be considered.
• If you are a publisher, note that Antiquity's reviews section covers both monographs and broader review articles, so a proposal may be considered for either format.

Decision criterion

If your book is a research monograph or edited volume in archaeology, approach the reviews editor directly. If it is a general-interest or non-archaeological title, expect a lower chance of review and consider whether a different venue matches its audience better.

What are the latest news and discoveries reported by Antiquity?

Antiquity's news page reports short, accessibly written summaries of newly published archaeological research, often tied to articles in the journal itself. The latest items visible on the site cover:

• Europe's largest assemblage of Iron Age iron bars — rusted iron objects found during industrial gravel extraction were identified through analysis and radiocarbon dating as the biggest mass find of Iron Age iron bars in Europe, apparently enough to equip around 500 warriors with swords, pointing to iron production and trade on an unprecedented scale.
• Insect remains and Indigenous burial practices in the Canary Islands — analysis of insects from a cave in Gran Canaria sheds light on how the island's Indigenous people used the site, challenging earlier interpretations of Indigenous Canarian societies and refining understanding of life before Spanish colonisation.
• Mesolithic fishing traps in the Norwegian mountains — preserved traps in the inland mountains of southern Norway show that hunter-fisher-gatherers were actively introducing fish into mountain lakes, since topographic barriers would otherwise have kept fish out of the region.

Two patterns stand out for readers. First, the news items are pegged to journal articles, so they work best as entry points rather than standalone reports — if a summary interests you, the underlying paper is where the method and caveats live. Second, the range is deliberately broad: European Iron Age economy, island burial practice, and Mesolithic resource management in the same feed.

If you want to follow this reliably, check the news listing periodically rather than relying on a single visit, and use the journal's other sections for depth: Antiquity Open for free-to-read research and debate articles, the Project Gallery for short pieces on current fieldwork worldwide, and Books and reviews for review articles and the New Book Chronicle. For a concrete example, a student writing on prehistoric fish translocation would start with the Norwegian traps news item, then move to the Project Gallery and the full article for dating and site context.

For the journal itself, see Antiquity Journal. Subscription details are handled through Cambridge University Press at Cambridge University Press.