The most wide-ranging, comprehensive, and up-to-date dictionary of archaeology available. Over 4,000 entries cover the terms encountered in academic and popular archaeological literature, in lectures, and on television. Topics covered include artefacts, techniques, terminology, people, sites, and periods, and specialist areas such as industrial and maritime archaeology. The second edition is fully revised and updated, now including 150 new entries on archaeological sites, terms, movements, and people, plus extended coverage of archaeological resource management and archaeological theory. The dictionary's primary focus is on Europe, the Old World, and the Americas, as these are the regions where archaeology has become an established academic and vocational subject, but it includes key archaeological sites around the world.

A quick-reference section covers chronological periods around the world, Egyptian rulers and dynasties, Roman rulers and dynasties, rulers of England to AD 1066, and principal international conventions and recommendations.

New to this edition, recommended web links for over 100 entries are updated on the Dictionary of Archaeology companion website.