Wreading Wednesday: Ethics in Archaeological Practice

When I first became editor of the Annual of ASOR, many years ago, Sarah Costello and Sarah Lepinski proposed the volume that would become Ethics in Archaeological Practice, AASOR 78 (2025). The book was originally based on a panel at the ASOR annual meeting sometime before the pandemic, but it was looking ahead to the change in the name of the organization from American Schools of Oriental Research to the American Society of Overseas Research and concomitantly the 2021 plenary by Dr. Morag Kersel, “Living with Legacies: ASOR Archaeo-activism and Future for 21st Century Archaeology.” In other words, this volume was both deliberate and timely and this combination is sometimes difficult to find.

Here’s the blurb:

Ethics in Archaeological Practice explores urgent topics and issues in archaeology as currently practiced in the classroom, the field, the museum, and the public sphere. While addressed primarily to archaeologists working in western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean, and North Africa, the volume raises contemporary ethical questions around race, gender, disability, climate change, and cultural heritage that are pressing and relevant to archaeology students and professionals worldwide. The fifteen contributors offer fundamental case studies and practical guidance for best practices and models of high standards of ethical practice in professional conduct. Together, they offer new approaches to advocacy and the responsible stewardship of heritage sites, collections, and the environment. These compelling and generative discussions make the case for a 21st century archaeology that is proactive and engaged with discourses addressing equity, social justice, anti-colonialism, and climate change.

Here’s a link to the table of contents. 

Here’s the cover, but keep reading below the fold, as they say.

One small landmark for this volume is that it is available in digital format as a download for $29.95. As far as I know, this is the first time an Annual volume has been available as a download.

One thing that would be absolutely amazing is if anyone who can buy a $30 digital book, buys this book, we could send a nice message to ASOR that digital books are well-and-truly part of our scholarly ecosystem and encourage ASOR to publish more affordable digital books in the future.

ASOR publishing is in the midst of a bit of a digital revolution as we try to navigate between our mission to disseminate archaeological knowledge to our members and maintain a financially sustainable publishing program. Ideally, we can begin publishing more open access titles, but the mystique of paper books and the idea that value is tied to price linger on among many ASOR members. It may be, in the immediate future, that we develop a two-tier system with more traditional archaeological monographs likely only to sell to libraries and in very low volumes, published in paper only and books like Ethics in Archaeological Practice, with the potential to sell in larger volumes being made available as in digital and perhaps even open access form. 

As a wild idea, it might be cool to imagine books becoming available open access if they hit a particular sales level (say 300 copies?), and for ASOR to have a practice of removing copyright from volumes over, say, 10 years old. Like many big, old ships, however, ASOR is slow to turn and it’ll take a steady breeze to get it to reset its sails.