As you’re navigating the complicated set of laws and statutes governing cultural resources in this country, you’ll inevitably come across two different spellings: ‘archaeology’ and ‘archeology’. Many people wonder why these two spellings coexist and which one to use in a given context. It turns out the two spellings highlight the fascinating history of this relatively young field of study and its long-standing link to government action and oversight.

The word ‘archaeology’ came into the English language in 1782. Another word coined during this year, appropriately enough, is poison ivy! In English, ‘archaeology’ derives from a Latin word, archaeologia, which is itself formed from earlier Greek roots: ἀρχαῖος (ar-CHAI-os) meaning ancient or old and λόγια (LO-gee-a) meaning a study of. The ‘ae’ in archaeology would have sounded something like the English word ‘eye’ in both Latin and Greek, and ‘ae’ is commonly found in English loanwords from Latin.

The ’ae’ was so common, in fact, that early printers created what is known as a ligature combining the two into ‘æ’ (sometimes called an ash and still used in many North Germanic languages like Danish and Icelandic). They did this so that they wouldn’t have to set two different type letters every time that letter combination came up. In many English dialects, the ‘ae’ sound developed into an ‘ee’ sound, meaning the pronunciation of this ‘æ’ ligature gradually became indistinguishable from ‘e’. Hence, the most common pronunciation of archaeology today does not sounds like ‘ar-KEYE-o-lo-gy’ but ‘ar-KEY-o-lo-gy’.

In the early 1890s, the US Government Printing Office decided to adopt new spelling standards that would replace the ‘æ’ ligature with a simple ‘e’. Archeology became a standard spelling for many Federal agencies such as the National Park Service, which continues to use the archeology spelling today. In fact, the National Park Service will not accept any spelling other than archeology.

For most other agencies and practicing archaeologists, the spellings are interchangeable, and some Federal agencies like the US Army Corps of Engineers use the spelling archaeology. Overall, the spelling archaeology appears to be preferred by most practicing archaeologists, and it is used by the Society of American Archaeology, the Archaeological Institute of America, and the Society for Historic Archaeology, the three largest organizations of archaeologists in the country.