In addition to archaeology, it features articles and book reviews on ethnoarchaeology, palaeoanthropology, physical anthropology, and ethnography.

The journal was established in 1957 as the Bulletin of the Far-Eastern Prehistory Association (American Branch) under the editorship of Wilhelm G. Solheim II, then followed its editor to other institutions.

The University of Hawaii Press became the publisher from volume XII (1969), adding the subtitle A Journal of Archaeology and Prehistory of Asia and the Pacific.

[1] In 1992, the editorship passed to Michael W. Graves and the subtitle was changed to The Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific.

Back issues are being added to an open-access archive in the University of Hawaii at Mānoa's ScholarSpace institutional repository.