Archaeology in a Pandemic Four Stories

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2022 has disrupted life in just about every way imaginable. In addition to experiencing the stresses of lockdown and witnessing the effects of the virus on our families, friends, and colleagues, many in the ASOR community have been hindered by the lack of access to collections, publications, and colleagues (although technology has certainly mitigated some of this). For most archaeologists, fieldwork plans came to a screeching halt in spring 2020; while some were able to resume fieldwork in summer 2020 or summer 2021 with smaller teams and new precautions, many have not traveled overseas in nearly two years. While the long-term impact of the pandemic on the discipline in general and ASOR in particular will not be known for years, it is important to hare our individual stories and document how our research lives continue to be affected now. In this essay, four archaeologists—two who were able to participate in archaeological fieldwork in 2020–2021 and two who were not—write about their experiences of archaeology in a pandemic.