[1] The journal originated in an annual edited volume series, Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, established by Michael Schiffer in 1978.

[2] The purpose of the series was to publish review articles covering current issues in archaeological theory.

[5] The series moved to a quarterly journal format in 1994, in order to expand its scope from reviews to other types of papers.

[7][8] In 2016 a special issue of the journal was dedicated to papers that challenged a binary approach to gender, which included perspectives from queer and transgender archaeologies.

[9] The journal is abstracted and indexed in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Scopus, Social Sciences Citation Index, Academic Search, International Bibliography of Periodical Literature, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Periodicals Index Online, and Anthropological Literature.