ABSTRACT
Archaeology is the study of human cultures through the recovery, recording and analysis of material remains. The principal tool that archaeologists use to recover this evidence is excavation. Long before volunteer tourism became popular in the fields of conservation and the environment, development and education, volunteers have been an integral part of archaeological excavation. Originally these volunteers were linked to academic institutions. However, since the 1960s this pool has been supplemented by those with no archaeological background. Volunteer archaeological tourism has since become increasingly popular for volunteer tourism consumers and a necessity for many excavations. Given the heavy reliance that archaeology places on volunteers for research excavation, the understanding of the scale of volunteer involvement and their contribution is relatively poor. While the study of such activity in the eco-tourism and associated fields has spawned a rich literature, archaeology has almost nothing, despite its greater antiquity. Consequently, this paper sets the framework for further discussion in respect of volunteer archaeological tourism.
