ABSTRACT
For a discipline concerned with interpreting the past, archaeology has been slow to investigate its own past and, in particular, the roles that archaeologists, the public, and the media have together played in the communication of archaeological information. Over the past 15 years, however, changes in the archaeological and media professions in Britain have led practitioners in both communities to prioritise their relationship to each other and to the public, creating an upsurge in public interest in archaeology and in archaeology’s visibility in the media. In turn, the public communication of archaeology and the relationship among archaeologists, the media, and the public have become timely subjects for study and debate in archaeological circles, featuring in conference sessions, university courses, and publications. As Jameson (1997: 11) writes, ‘It is likely that the waning years of the twentieth century will be identified in the history of archaeology as a time when the profession, as a whole, came to the realization that it could no longer afford to be detached from the mechanisms and programmes that attempt to communicate archaeological information to the lay public.’
