Backgrounds of the EXARC Journal

In 2000, in the Czech Republic, the Society for Experimental Archaeology (SEA) published their first yearbook, called REA or: “(Re)konstrukce a experiment v archeologii”. They aimed for an exchange of information about experiments and education in archaeology in their country. The Czech yearbook soon became sought after abroad, despite the information being difficult to access even if the main articles were summarised in English, French and German. Over time, foreign contributors found their way to being published in the Czech republic.

The rising interest from abroad as well as the need to serve the wider Czech public caused SEA to take a bold step in 2004. They split the original REA yearbook into two. The first was a fully Czech journal under the original name, later titled “Živá archeologie”. Besides that, SEA joined forces with EXARC, creating EuroREA, officially known as  “(Re)construction and Experiment in Archaeology - European Platform”.

We were proud to gain Mgr J. Kateřina Dvořáková as Founding Chief Editor. She had already been involved with the original Czech REA from 2001. Even before that, Mgr Dvořáková had first-hand experience with publishing while studying at university in the mid 1980's.

In 2007, SEA was absorbed into the department of archaeology of The Faculty of Humanities, of the University of Hradec Králové. At the request of the founders, responsibility for EuroREA was transferred into the hands of EXARC. From that moment on, while the original founders served as willing advisors and keen supporters, EuroREA became the journal of EXARC, where the EXARC Board had full responsibility, in this case delegated to the Chief Editor.

EuroREA kept growing, both in terms of content and readership. As a result of this, we changed publication strategy in 2011. EuroREA reflected too much a Euro-centric approach and did not mirror the connection to the broader network EXARC offered. Therefore, we changed the name to the "EXARC Journal”.

The change into the EXARC Journal was a commitment to bringing more material, more often, and in a wider range of media. The second change was in the structure of the EXARC Journal: when EuroReEA had six or more categories, we adapted a straightforward division in three chapters: archaeological open-air museums, experiment, and mixed matters. The board of editors, with many new names since 2011, reflected this change.

All these issues were published as hard copy, for members only. In 2012, we started publishing in two different ways. The EXARC Journal continued as an online-only publication, appearing three times a year, for members only. Separately from that, EXARC started publishing a yearbook-like publication, called the EXARC Journal Digest, also for members only. The Digest featured a selection of abridged articles, previously published in the EXARC Journal.

In 2014, we stepped up and published new issues of the EXARC Journal four times a year. We also started dividing all articles in four peer-reviewed sections (EXARCs four legs covering experimental archaeology, archaeological open-air museums, ancient technology and interpretation). This was complemented with a fifth section (non peer-reviewed) of mixed matters, which contained book reviews, reports from conferences and events, interviews with personalities from the world of experimental archaeology and portraits of archaeological open-air museums. While mixed matters were publicly available, the reviewed  articles remained members only, until they were two years old.

This changed again in 2017, when we decided to publish all articles (new and old) open access. As a result of this, since 2019 the EXARC Journal is listed at the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). Again, the board of editors was enlarged and diversified.

The EXARC Journal Digest (our hard copy publication) started in 2011 with one issue per year. This changed to two issues per year of about 36 pages each for the years 2014-2019. In the following years (2020-2024), we went down to publishing once per year, but then with over 100 pages per issue.

By the year 2023, the EXARC Journal had 220,000 pageviews annually, and we kept growing. For this reason, we decided to split off the EXARC official website from the EXARC Journal website in 2025. This will guarantee accessibility and sustainability for the EXARC Journal. The core editorial team has mostly remained the same since 2004, having published 50 issues of the EXARC Journal, and 20 issues of the EXARC Journal Digest until 2025.