The journal is published by the Sussex Archaeological Society and was established in 1848.

[1] Owen Bedwin (editor 1979–1983) introduced anonymous reviewing for articles.

By 2012, only the Surrey Archaeological Society had done something similar,[2] though this later became more common and the SAS's own work available through the ADS was extended to cover everything since the journal's inception.

Marking the society's 175th anniversary in 2021, volunteers at the SAS completed a project digitising and indexing the whole catalogue of the journal.

[4] In 1909, Louis Francis Salzman became the first professional archaeologist or historian to edit the journal; professionalisation became the norm.