History of ACTA Archaeologica
Reflections on Acta Archaeologica
by Klavs Randsborg (1944-2016), 3rd general editor of Acta Archaeologica
Full article published in Rundkvist, M. (ed.). 2007. Scholarly journals between the past and the future. KVHAA Konferenser 65. Stockholm.
Acta Archaeologica is an independent joint Nordic periodical and publication series. It started in 1930 and publishes in the main Western languages. A short history of this prestigious periodical gives rise to reflections on the times of blue hyperlinks to come, when electronics dictate changes in the World of scholarly publication, communication, and status. When websites become publications and gateways to the scientific World, the status of high–quality scientific information must be upheld in a world of total information. A worrisome aspect of the current changes in the finances.
”… the scope of this journal is thus not merely confined to northern prehistory but includes a much wider field, … ”
Joint editorial preface, Acta Archaeologica I, 1930
Acta Archaeologica published its first volume in 1930. It was founded as a joint Nordic archaeological journal with contributions entirely in non-Scandinavian languages: English, German, French or Italian. The publishers then were Munksgaard of Copenhagen, later Blackwell Munksgaard, outstanding scientific publishers. Then director Ejnar Munksgaard even became a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in acknowledgement of his efforts. The surplus of the sale of the company to Blackwell of Oxford in 1963 makes up the core of the major Elisabeth Munksgaard archaeological foundation in support of young scholars.
The general editors of Acta Archaeologica have been only three: Professors Johannes Brøndsted and Carl Johan Becker (sole general editor from vol. 19, 1948), and from vol. 54, 1983 Klavs Randsborg. Becker has certainly carried most of the burden over the years and will probably remain the longest-serving general editor (*Klavs Randsborg was one year short of earning this title). However, it should also be remarked that the volumes of Acta Archaeologica are much heavier today – as to the number of pages, words, and illustrations (some now in colour) – than in earlier decades, certainly much more so than in the 1930s and 40s, and even the 50s and 60s.
Acta Archaeologica was one of Brøndsted’s many successful efforts to restore Danish archaeology to its former glory after the retirement of Sophus Müller in 1921 and the subsequent decline of the National Museum in Copenhagen. Incidentally, the Danish National Museum celebrates its bicentennial in 2007 with the publication, as a large demi volume of Acta Archaeologica, of the highly detailed hitherto unpublished museum registers from the days of C.J. Thomsen, the father of Prehistoric archaeology – indeed the documentation of the birth of a world museum.
The first editorial board – consisting of Prehistoric, Classical, Near Eastern and Mediaeval archaeologists –comprised Axel Boëtius, Rome; A.W. Brøgger, Oslo; J. Brøndsted, Copenhagen;K. Friis Johansen, Copenhagen; Sune Lindqvist, Uppsala; C.A. Nordman, Helsinki; Pou Nørlund, Copenhagen; Haakon Shetelig, Bergen and Bengt Thordeman, Stockholm. Many other editors from the Nordic countries, all highly prominent scholars, teachers, and administrators, have since been active, in particular as referees; a slimmer Nordic editorial group will be established to cope with the new challenges. In contrast to very many other archaeological journals – including Fornvännen, whose centennial we are currently celebrating – Acta Archaeologica is not supported by anyarchaeological or any other kind of learned society or even an institution proper, except in recent years, the Centre of World Archaeology of the University of Copenhagen (* since, the Society of Acta Archaeologica has been established).
The original idea was that the prestigious Acta Archaeologica should be the ‘face’ of Scandinavian archaeology toward the rest of the World at a time when little Nordic archaeology was published in foreign languages. The plan was that all of Nordic archaeology should be included, from the North Atlantic to Scandinavia and on to the Mediterranean and other areas. At the same time, foreign archaeologists, in particular those dealing with the North, were invited to contribute. Indeed, Brøndsted also organised the famed 6th Nordic Archaeological Meeting in Denmark in 1937, the last one before World War II divided Nordic archaeology (Acta Archaeologica 74, 2003/S.S. Hansen).
Typical Acta Archaeologica papers are substantial and to the point but not overloaded with data. Occasionally half a volume or more has been devoted to one ‘article’, in fact, a monograph. Now all such volumes are issued in hardcover.
The squarish format and particular style of printing were deliberately English rather than German. The newly started independent Antiquity (from 1927 onward) may have provided inspiration, but also other European journals, relatively independent and particularly broad in scope, such as Prähistorische Zeitschrift, would have been before the eyes of the founding fathers of Acta Archaeologica. The first female member of the editorial board, incidentally, was Finnish, Professor Ella Kivikoski, with vol. 25, 1954. The periodicals of the Danish Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries (founded in 1825), including the famous Aarbøger for Nordisk Oldkyndighed og Historie (with predecessors from 1812 onwards), and other Nordic annuals (in small formats) played only a limited role in the concept. Perhaps the serene design of the original Nordiske Fortidsminder, a series of short monographs in large format, also played a role.
Considering the dramatic proliferation of foreign-language publications in the archaeological North, in particular from the 1970s on, Acta Archaeologica has seen it as a particular challenge to invite archaeologists from the new Eastern Europe to contribute to the journal and series. Even World Archaeology is included today, as the consequence of globalisation, but the Nordic focus remains. Acta Archaeologica is mainly a so-called institutional journal and series, found in major archaeological institutions around the globe, and in Scandinavia. For several years (*since 2000), Acta Archaeologica has been published both on paper and electronically: one of the earliest Nordic humanistic journals to take this step. The publishers, Blackwell (*followed by Willey), with many medical and natural-science journals, sees worldwide competition and urges modernisation, but perhaps has less nerve for the particular qualities and contexts of humanistic journals, as they are more local and less wealthy, in particular those put out by the smaller museums.
The original financial contributors to Acta Archaeologica were the Nordic Research Councils (and their predecessors), lately the Nordic Publication Council – Humanities, as well as the New Carlsberg Foundation, Copenhagen. In the 1930s and later, funding was copious. Apart from printing costs, translation was covered, the general editor paid, at least in part, and there were even modest fees to the contributors. Today, translation and copy-editing cost more than production, and Acta Archaeologica has only the means to cover printing and a few other expenses. Nearly all the work is carried out by the general editor. From the early 1990s onward, Acta Archaeologica has deliberately done without public support, but occasionally it receives support from private funds, mainly for the monographs. And as mentioned, Acta Archaeologica has now linked up with the Centre of World Archaeology, Copenhagen University (worldarchaeology.org).
As with other scholarly journals, subscribers to the paper edition are becoming less numerous, while electronic subscribers are on the rise. However, we did not foresee that so many, in particular overseas libraries, would switch to the electronic version. More people than ever are reading Acta Archaeologica, one of the very few independent Nordic, European – even worldwide – scholarly periodicals. The future is challenging indeed. Twenty and thirty years from now, perhaps, the prestigious paper editions of Acta Archaeologica may have been reduced to monographs, including thematic volumes, and ordinary papers on mixed topics are only found in the electronic format. Quality thematic volumes, incidentally, like other such monographs, sell very well. Obviously, there is a strong need for collected and collective, readily accessible knowledge for specialist groups and students.
But that is the future. Aesthetics, clarity of argument and illustration and prestige are still highly important factors. Prominent archaeologists and archaeological institutions, private and public foundations, and even students and other readers are not yet ready to abandon paper entirely as regards publications of lasting value, bound to last.