Whichever aspect of archaeology you are studying, the library has books, journals and databases to suit your needs.
Welcome to our guide about Archaeology resources. As the Learning and Research Librarian for Humanities and Languages, I am here to support you in your learning and assignments.
Michelle Crowther, Learning & Research Librarian for Humanities and Languagues
Augustine House Library has a range of books, journals and reports which will help you in your studies. You can also access e-books and online journals via the library subscription services.
You will find the majority of the archaeology book collection at classmark 930.1 (on the 3rd floor of Augustine House). Classmarks which are useful are:
Remember to check the different areas housing the 7-day loan and 4-week loans.
If you are out on a dig and can’t get to the library, you can access the university’s e-resources via your wifi. The library has hundreds of relevant e-books which you can access by logging into your account on Library Search. Simply limit your results in the left-hand pane of the search screen to e-books and click on the link to CCCU e-book to download or read online. You’ll find we have some amazing titles such as Colin Renfew’s Archaeology: the key concepts and Simon May’s The archaeology of human bones.
We also have access to Oxford Handbooks Online with over 50 useful titles for archaeology.
Journals (also known as Periodicals) are similar to magazines in that they are published regularly but are written by academics and researchers rather than journalists. The subject matter can be very detailed but will be rigorously researched and backed up with evidence. The hallmark of a good journal will be footnotes or in-text citations and a bibliography of reading to evidence research. They are also often peer-reviewed which means they have been through a thorough editorial process. You can find print copies of journals on the 2nd floor of Augustine House in the silent zone located near the lifts. These are for use in the library only. Why not take a peek at Archaeologia Cantiana or Britannia: a journal of Romano-British and kindred studies ? As well as scholarly journals we also have copies of the Kent Archaeological Society Newsletter and the annual reports of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust at 913.4223 CAN.
The Library also provides access to online journals such as American Journal of Archaeology, Cambridge Journal of Archaeology, Environmental Archaeology, Journal of Archaeology and Journal of Field Archaeology. To find out more about online journals published in the discipline of archaeology, you can use an app such as Browzine. Not only does it store all your favourite journals, it enables you to easily find and read the most recent issue from your mobile device (and store them in a bibliographic management tool such as Zotero or Mendeley).
Sometimes you may want to look for journal articles on a specific topic, such as hill forts or burial mounds. You don’t have to browse for articles using Browzine, but can use a search engine such as the CCCU search tool Library Search or alternatively Google Scholar. Both are good, but they have different functions and it is important to be aware of that. Google Scholar searches scholarly material, but you may not be able to access all of the material whereas Library Search is linked to the CCCU journal subscriptions. Run a quick search in Library Search to find full-text journal articles using key words or phrases connected with your research topic e.g. “Bronze age” or “barrows”. You can read the Library Search quick guide for more information.
JSTOR is also a popular journal database which provides access to past issues of journals.
If you need a journal article that the university doesn’t subscribe to, try document delivery.
You can find the following newspaper collections via the Find databases A to Z link on LibrarySearch. Remember to log in to Library Search with your computing username and password to gain full access:
British Periodicals – periodical press, strong on popular culture and political satire.
Europeana Newspaper Collection – historic newspapers from across Europe.
Gale Primary Sources includes the 17th and 18th century Burney collection, 19th century British library newspapers,19th century UK periodical collection and The Times Digital Archive 1785-2013.
LexisLibrary Newspapers (UK) – 1982 to current.
Use the specialist databases available to you via the Find databases link in Library Search for a more advanced search of the academic literature available. Remember to log in to your account to obtain full-text of the journal articles.
The following are key databases for your subject.
Art Full Text – Indexes 223 leading domestic and international periodicals pertaining to the art world. Covers advertising art, antiques, archaeology, architecture, art, design, films, museology and photography. 1984 – present day.
Artstor – Images of artefacts from US public collections. You can watch a short video on how to find archaeological artefacts in the collections.
Bibliography of British and Irish History Includes material on British and Irish History from 55 BC to the present. Note this source is good for gaining a thorough understanding of the literature available in your field, but there is no full-text.
Historic Digimap You can view historical Ordnance Survey maps from the 1840s – 1990s and download them for use in graphics, GIS or CAD software. Here is a guide to using the maps or read a blog post about how Historic Digimap can be used in your research.
JSTOR A full-text archive of core scholarly journals, dating from the very first issue but not including recently published material. Subject coverage includes Arts and Sciences, with 90 journal titles relevant to Archaeology. Although this is a great resource, you may wish to check the e-journals listing on Library Search or an indexing service such as Humanities Index or Web of Science for more current material relating to archaeology.
SCOPUS covers the world's largest collection of abstracts, references and indexes of scientific, technical and medical literature as well as the research literature of the social sciences and humanities.
Web of Science consists of a number of citation indexes, including Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences, which allow you to search for references to published journal articles on a given topic. If you are doing a comprehensive review of literature on a topic, it is advisable to check this source. Note any material not available full-text via the library can be requested via document delivery.
Also available via the Find Databases A to Z in Library Search are British History Online and Medieval and Early Modern Sources Online ( MEMSO).
Archaeology Data Service -The ADS Library brings together material from the British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB), the ADS library of unpublished fieldwork reports, as well as documents from the ADS archives and archaeological publishers.
Archaeology Reports Online – downloadable site reports
EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe – provides links to documents about prehistoric and ancient Europe.
Heritage Gateway: access to local and national records on the historic environment.
Historic England – Publications including downloadable guides to airborne lidar, environmental archaeology, GNSS, dendrochronology, archaeolomagnetic dating and geophysical surveys.
Portable Antiquities Scheme: The Portable Antiquities Scheme’s database holds records of archaeological finds discovered by members of the public.
World History Encyclopedia – useful articles on Ancient Greece, Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations