The Architect of Arch-L

Before the Internet and the World Wide Web became so prevalent, discussion among archaeologists on topics of the day was limited. Telephone, snail mail, faxing, and annual conferences were the only venues open to isolated scholars scattered out around the planet--and mostly on a one-to-one basis only. Often the best place to argue theory, discuss unpublished and published findings, and exchange gossip was in the hotel coffee shop or bar at the Society for American Archaeology or other national and international meetings.

The Internet changed all that. In 1986, a small electronic mailing list was begun, expanding and maintaining pub discussions year round. In the eleven intervening years, the ARCH-L list, as it came to be called, has collected nearly 2,000 subscribers from all over the world. David Carlson, list-owner of ARCH-L since 1993, recently discussed some of ARCH-L’s history as well as other things he’s been involved with since that time.

What are the origins of ARCH-L?

ARCH-L started as a small mailing list called AIE (Archaeological Information Exchange) set up by Sebastian Rahtz and Kris Lockyear about 1986 in the U.K. About four years later it became ARCH-L running under listserv software on a computer in Germany. Sebastian Rahtz was the list-owner. By 1992 the list had about 600 subscribers and the membership was shifting heavily to the U.S., so I suggested to Sebastian that Texas A&M handle the U.S. mail distribution.

In August 1993, Sebastian decided to hand over the list to someone else so that he could pursue other networking interests. Since we were already distributing over half the messages, I volunteered. Sebastian never told me if he had any other offers.In August 1993, Sebastian decided to hand over the list to someone else so that he could pursue other networking interests. Since we were already distributing over half the messages, I volunteered. Sebastian never told me if he had any other offers.

Today (in 1997), the list has 1800 subscribers in 44 countries (but most of them in the U.S. and U.K.). Probably the biggest change this year is that the subscription base has not dropped off as dramatically during the summer. A few years ago we would lose 25% of the list every summer. This summer it is more like 5-10%. The growth rate for the list is about 10-15% per year so we might hit 2000 by the end of 1997.

Was your intention to provide communication to the professional community, or, as it has shaken out, to a wide variety of people with a common interest?

I always saw the list as a way for professional archaeologists and non-professionals with a serious interest in archaeology to get together. I did not want the list to become a place to rehash the "aquatic ape theory of evolution" or "von Daniken's latest theory" or "mystery of the sphinx". That ground is well-covered by sci.archaeology and I did not want to duplicate it. Since the list is not moderated, I didn't have much influence over where the list went, but the large percentage of professional archaeologists on the list makes the list pretty uninteresting to anyone with just a casual interest in archaeology. The structure of usenet newsgroups encourages dipping into the group for a few days and then ignoring it, whereas electronic conferences require more activity (whether reading the mail or discarding it) and requires it every day or every other day.

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