Welcome to the website dedicated to Island and Coastal Archaeology, including the Society for American Archaeology’s Special Interest Group and the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology.

This website is aimed at archaeologists and other scientists with interests in the techniques, methodologies, and theories used to investigate island and coastal regions and provides an international forum for archaeologists from different scientific backgrounds who share a common interest in studying islands, archipelagoes, and coastal regions across time and space. The goal of the SAA interest group and JICA is to advance the field of island and coastal archaeology and facilitate the professional development and growth of scholars interested in questions related to the role that these environments played in human history.

Researchers interested in island and coastal archaeology explore a wide array of important archaeological research topics, including the colonization and settlement of islands, the movement and transfer of exotic goods, plants, and animals, the development of trade and exchange systems between different cultural groups, interaction spheres that evolved through time, reports or comparisons of seafaring technologies worldwide, how insular environments affected or influenced sociocultural complexity, how peoples compensated for restricted resources on some islands (e.g., coral atolls), aquatic adaptations and the exploitation of marine resources, historical ecologies and the modification of indigenous societies after European contact, examples of multidisciplinary research projects between archaeologists and other scientists (e.g., geologists for sourcing of artifacts, biologists for identifying marine species), and management and conservation of these resources. The will primarily be marine and estuarine environments, but could also include others including those riverine, and lacustrine in nature depending on the overall context of the group.

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