Archeology v Archaeology: A Poll

In response to a recent discussion of whether you spell this field of study Archaeology or Archeology, a reader from an American Bureau of Land Management writes: "The lead archaeologist in my office insists on spelling archaeology "archeology". He states the "aeo" version is English and he is American and will spell it the American way. As for myself and several other archaeologists working for the BLM, we all spell archaeology with the 'a' because we worked too hard for that "a" (and we tell our co-workers that when they question why archaeology is spelled two different ways).

"I did have a professor that would mark down any paper turned in to him if archaeology was spelled without the "a" (and he told us this in class)."

I think she's on to something; the switch to an 'e' alone might be an American thing. But how well did it take? The time-tested way to tell popularity is to ask Google. Google says that the spelling of archaeology is found on about 51,400,000 web pages, while archeology is only on 4,480,000 web pages. Seems like Archaeology wins ten to one. But, what the heck, let's be scientific-like, and run a poll where everyone can vote as many times as he or she likes:

Vote Now: How do you spell it?

• Ancient ways are the best, I spell it Archaeology
• I'm a 21st century person, and I like Archeology
• I spell it both ways, depending on how I feel on a particular day

I've received several comments in my inbox concerning this controversial topic. If you would like to comment on the Archaeology/Archeology choice, please feel free to comment on our bulletin board.