The journal has won several awards for its creative exemplars of linked e-publications and archives.

[7][8][9] Journal content makes use of the potential of internet publication to present archaeological research (excavation reports, methodology, analyses, applications of information technology) in ways that could not be achieved in print, such as searchable data sets, visualisations/virtual reality models, and interactive mapping.

It published its first issue in 1996 and was initially open access with tapering funding from the eLib programme.

Institutional site licences were launched in 2000,[11] and incrementally moved to a subscription only model by 2002.

[12] [13][14] but in September 2014, editor Winters announced that the publication had adopted an open access approach and that all past and future content would be freely available.