Resources

• APSARA Authority – The Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap.
• Association of Myanmar Archaeologists – A blog run by archaeology students in Myanmar.
• Balai Konservasi Borobudur – Borobudur Conservation Centre.
• Balai Pelestarian Cagar Budaya – The Indonesian Centre for Preservation of Cultural Heritage (BPCB) is the technical implemention unit of the Ministry of Education and Culture. It has twelve sub-units: in Aceh, West Sumatra, Jambi, Banten, Yogyakarta, Central Java, East Java, Bali, South Sulawesi, Gorontalo, East Kalimantan and North Maluku.
• Balai Pelestarian Situs Manusia Purba (BPSMP) Sangiran – Sangiran Early Man Centre.
• Department of Archaeology, Museum and Library – The Myanmar department of archaeology falls under the Ministry of Culture.
• Direktorat Jenderal Kebudayaan – The Directorate General of Culture is the implementing agency of Indonesia, overseeing cultural heritage, museums and archaeology
• EFEO – Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient or the French School of Asian Studies has historically done a lot of research in Indochina because of its colonial links. Website is in French.
• Henry Luce Foundation – Non-profit private foundation that provides grants in the fields of Asia, higher education, religion and theology, art, and public policy.
• Heritage Conservation Advocates – The Heritage Conservation Advocates (HCA) campaigns for the preservation and promotion of historical and archaeological sites in Cagayan de Oro and vicinities.
• Heritage Trust of Malaysia – Badan Warisan, or the Heritage Trust of Malaysia, is an NGO dedicated to conserving and educating about Malaysia’s built heritage.
• Heritage Watch – Heritage Watch aims to address the problem of the trade in antiquities in Southeast Asia, particularly in Cambodia, by education campaigns, tourism campaigns and other means.
• ICC Angkor – The International Coordinating Committee for Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor.
• ICCROM – International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property.
• ICOMOS – non-governmental international organisation dedicated to the conservation of the world’s monuments and sites with national committees in Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
• International Council of Museums
• Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association – Founded in 1929, the IPPA is dedicated to the study of prehistory of Eastern Asia (70 deg longitude) and the pacific region.
• Institute for Southeast Asian Archaeology – ISEAA is a nonprofit organization, formed in late 2013, that builds upon a core of pioneering scholarship in Southeast Asian archaeology that began in the late 1960s at the Penn Museum.
• Jabatan Muzium Malaysia (Department of Museums, Malaysia) – The official government website for the Department of Museums, Malaysia.
• Jabatan Muzium-Muzium, Brunei Darussalam – The Brunei Museums Department is responsible for protecting and preserving national heritage.
• Jabatan Warisan Negara, Malaysia – Department of Heritage, Malaysia.
• Katipunan Arkeologist ng Pilipinas, Inc. – Professional association for Philippine archaeologists. Facebook page.
• Maitreya – Maitreya is the student association for the archaeology of Asia, based in Leiden University in the Netherlands.
• Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (MBRAS)– Incorporating the Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JMBRAS), that publishes occasional papers on Malaysian archaeology.
• Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts – Official Cambodian website (in Khmer).
• Myanmar Archaeology Association –  The Myanmar Archaeology Association was established to fill the gap between NGOs concerning cultural heritage issues and the governmental sector including the academic institutions such as universities and schools.
• National Heritage Board – The National Heritage Board of Singapore undertakes the roles of safeguarding and promoting the heritage of our diverse communities, for the purpose of education, nation-building and cultural understanding.
• Philippine Underwater Archaeology Society – A non-profit society  dedicated to help study and preserve Philippines’ underwater heritage, and to raise public awareness about underwater archaeology. Facebook page.
• SEAMEO-CHAT – The Regional Centre for History and Tradition under the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation, based in Yangon. Facebook page.
• SEAMEO-SPAFA – The Regional Centre for Archaeology and Fine Arts, under the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation, based in Bangkok. [Disclosure: I work for SEAMEO SPAFA full-time as the Senior Specialist in Archaeology].
• The Siam Society – Incorporating the Siamese Heritage Trust. The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage was established in 1904 with a mission to promote knowledge of the culture, history, arts, and natural sciences of Thailand as well as those of neighbouring countries.
• Southeast Asian Ceramics Society – Formed in 1969, the Southeast Asian Ceramic Society’s purpose is to widen appreciation and acquire knowledge of the ceramic art of China and countries adjacent to China, especially those of Southeast Asia. To pursue this aim, local members meet for periodic discussion, to hear talks by experts and to study and compare pots.
• Temasek History Research Centre – The Temasek History Research Centre (THRC) was established at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in 2019. THRC will focus on Singapore’s premodern history, its economic and socio-cultural links to the region, as well as its historical role as a trading centre.
• UNESCO Bangkok – Website of the Unesco office in Bangkok, which oversees Asia and the Pacific.
• UNESCO UNITWIN Underwater Archaeology Network – The UNITWIN Network for Underwater Archaeology aims to increase capacity in the participating countries through international cooperation.
• Wenner-Gren Foundation – The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Inc. is a private operating foundation dedicated to the advancement of anthropology throughout the world.
• World Archaeological Congress – The World Archaeological Congress ogists, heritage managers, students and members of the public.
• World Monuments Fund – runs a number of projects in Southeast Asia.

• Angkor Research Program – An “international, multidisciplinary research programme interested in the decline of urbanism at Angkor”. The project is coordinated by the University of Sydney.
• Archaeological Projects in Cambodia – A list of past and current projects in the kingdom run by Alison Carter.
• The Ban Chiang Project – Hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, the Ban Chiang Project is a comprehensive website about Ban Chiang with the aims: “to introduce newcomers to the fascinating archaeological discoveries at Ban Chiang; and second, to keep our friends and colleagues informed on our progress”.
• Banda Islands Archaeology Website – An archaeology project in the Banda Islands in East Indonedia led by the University of Washington and Gadjah Mada University to uncover the archaeology of this region.
• Banda Islands Field School Blog – A blog run by the students and instructors attending an 8-week field school at the Banda Islands in early 2009.
• Cambodian Archaeological Lidar Initiative – Project website of the Lidar imaging programme.
• The Cultured Rainforest Project – is headed by the University of Cambridge to investigate the people of the Kelabit Highlands and their interactions with the forest in the present and past.
• Early Central Borneo Project – The Early Central Borneo Project is a collaborative research-community archaeology and heritage project investigating the prehistory of central Borneo. Facebook page.
• Gua Tambun Heritage Awareness Project – An interactive and collaborative platform that aims to promote public awareness and appreciation for Gua Tambun Prehistoric Rock Art, under the auspices of Centre for Global Archaeological Research (CGAR) affiliated to University Sains Malaysia (USM), Penang.
• Highland Archaeology Project in Pang Mapha District, Mea Hong Son Province Phase 2 – a multidisciplinary archaeological project investigating the different cultures from ancient times to present in in Northwest Thailand.
• HOPSea – The Human Origins Patrimony in Southeast Asia, a multinational collaboration between European and Southeast Asian partners.
• IRAW@BAGAN – Project website for the Integrated Socio-Ecological History for Residential Patterning, Agricultural Practices, and Water Management at the Medieval Burmese Capital of Bagan, Myanmar.
• Lao-UNESCO Programme for “Safeguarding the Plain of Jars”
• MaP Fund – The mission of the MAP Fund is to promote and support the development, advancement of and research in maritime archaeology and the protection and investigation of underwater cultural heritage, including the publication and dissemination of research, with a focus on the Asia and the Pacific region, in particular Australia and the ASEAN countries. Facebook page.
• Middle Mekong Archaeology Project – Directed by Dr Joyce White of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, MMAP is the project site of a survey of a portion of the Mekong river in Laos.
• Myanmar-Singapore Archaeology Training Project (MSATP) – Project site hosted under NUS Press, focusing on ceramics. In English and Burmese.
• The Niah Cave Project – An archaeological project by the University of Leicester.
• On Fire Archaeology – Experimental archaeological project replicating Angkorian kilns and ceramics.
• Origins of Angkor Archaeological Project – Directed by Professor Charles Higham, the Origins of Angkor project is a “multi-disciplinary research project being undertaken by the University of Otago Department of Anthropology and the Fine Arts Department of Thailand. The aim of the project is to assess the seminal aspects of the social, cultural and technological development in the Mun River valley of Northeast Thailand”.
• Papuan Past Project – The Papuan Past project combines archaeological and genomic approaches to explore the modalities of human population settlement and adaptation – biological, cultural and technical evolution – over the last 50 000 years.
• PEMSEA (Program for Early Modern Southeast Asia) – Project website for a collaboration between the University of California-Los Angeles, University of Hawaii-Manoa, and the University of Washington.
• Philippine Archaeology @ UCLA – Philippine archaeology projects run from the archaeology program at UCLA.
• Plain of Jars Archaeological Project – Lao/Australian archaeological research at the Plain of Jars, Xieng Khouang Province, Lao PDR. Led by the MoICT, ANU and Monash and funded by the ARC. Facebook page.
• The Ports and Harbours of Southeast Asia – Project analyzing the mechanisms upon which the shipping network of the Southeast Asian branch of the Maritime Silk Road developed from a regional to a trans-regional network where goods.
• P’teah Cambodia – A archaeology project directed by Drs Miriam Stark and Alison Carter investigating the archaeology of households and non-elites in Cambodia.
• Public Archaeology at Fort Cornwallis – An initiative by the George Town Conservation and Development Corporation (GTCDC) and University Sains Malaysia (USM). Facebook page.
• Southeast Asian Archaeology Lab – Headed by Stephen Acabado at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA.
• SUNDASIA – Project exploring how prehistoric tropical communities adapted to cycles of coastal inundation over the last 60,000 years in northern Vietnam, and how these data can help inform models and responses to modern climate-induced rising seas in this region.
• Tanah Datar Archaeological Project – An excavation blog for the Tanah Datar Archaeological Project, running from 1 March – 8 April 2012, by Universitas Indonesia and the Frei Universität Berlin.
• Vietnam Maritime Archeology Project – To promote Underwater Cultural Heritage and Maritime Archeology in Vietnam. Facebook page.
• Wat Krachee Conservation Project – Joint project between Unesco Bangkok and the Fine Arts Department of Thailand to restore traditional wisdom for the preservation of traditional Thai architecture for the conservation of world heritage sites. Facebook page.

• AATA Online – Run by the Getty Conservation Institutue, AATA Online is a free research database containing abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage.
• Academia.edu – A social network for academics. Many academics choose to store a copy of their research on their profile page, so if you find a paper that is pay-walled, you might possibly find the author here and request a copy direct from them.
• Acronyms used by Asian/Pacific Scholars: a Dictionary – Maintained by Ciolek and Noyce at the Research School of Asian and Pacific Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra, this is a comprehensive A-Z web resource for scholars in the Asian and Pacific region. Note that the abbreviation for this website is SEAArch.
• Antique Maps, Views and Plans featuring the Kessler Collection – A collection of maps of the Asia-Pacific region dating from the 17th century in the Australian National University Open Research collection.
• Archaeological Ethics Database – This database is an ongoing project by the Register of Professional Archaeologists (the Register) and the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA). The goal of the database is to bring together sources on archaeological ethics in a single place for the use of students, researchers, and professional archaeologists.
• Charles Higham’s Excavation Records: Prof. Charles Higham has made his excavation records of Ban Lum Khao, Ban Na Di, Ban Non Wat, Khok Phanom Di, Noen U-Loke, Non Ban Jak, Non Muang Kao anf Nong Nor publicly available for re-use (with attribution).
• A Chinese Gazetteer of Foreign Lands: A new translation of Part 1 of the Zhufan zhi 諸蕃志 (1225) by Shao-yun Yang
• The Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campā – The Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campā is a publication of the École française d’Extrême-Orient, realized in collaboration with the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. This project aims to recover, preserve, study and make accessible the corpus of inscriptions of ancient Campā (in present Việt Nam), written either in Sanskrit or in Old Cam.
• The Database of the Restoration Work of the Southern Library of Bayon – By a collaboration between Japan and the APSARA Authority.
• Digital Library of Lao Manuscripts – Containing images of over 12,000 Lao texts made available for study. Collaboration by  the National Library of Laos, the University of Passau, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz
• Digitising Thai-Mon palm-leaf manuscripts – A project under the British Endangered Archives Programme, a collection of scanned palm-leaf manuscripts.
• DREAMSEA – Online repository of Southeast Asian Manuscripts  by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society (PPIM) Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta State Islamic University (UIN) Jakarta, Indonesia, in cooperation with the Centre for the Study of Manuscripts Culture (CSMC), University of Hamburg, Germany.
• EFEO Image archives – Archival images collected by the École française d’Extrême-Orient, available online.
• E. Moore Library – The E.Moore Library is a specialist collection focusing on the art, archaeology, anthropology, history and religion of Southeast Asia and neighbouring regions.
• Google Scholar – Google’s search engine for academic research.
• Historical Ecology of the Mekong in a set of 5 diachronic maps – Open Access map by Marko Kallio and Veronica Walker Vadillo
• ICOMOS Documentation Centre – The ICOMOS Documentation Centre is the primary repository for the original documentation of the cultural and mixed (natural and cultural) properties that have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1978.
• Khastara – An online database of the National Library of Indonesia featuring collections related to the Nusantara region.
• Khmer Inscriptions Program – Online database of K-inscriptions. In French.
• MERAL Portal – The MERAL Portal provides free and open access to research publications (from international and local journals, theses, conference papers, etc.) and to teaching and learning materials from Universities in Myanmar.
• The Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP) is the repository of all information pertaining to cultural properties in the Philippines deemed significant to Philippine cultural heritage. It was established through Article V Section 4 of the National Heritage Act of 2009 Republic Act 10066.
• Researching Colonial History of the Malay World like a Millennial – Comprehensive list of digial resources curated by Simon Soon of the Cultural Centre, University of Malaya.
• Researchgate.net – Another social network for academics and a potential way to get papers that are paywalled by contacting them directly, if they have a profile on this page.
• SEA-ARK – This resource page disseminates published and unpublished reports pertinent to the pursuit of Southeast Asian Archaeology. Hosted in the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre (now Temasek History Research Centre) in the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
• Silpakorn Online – The digital center for the Fine Arts Department of Thailand, where you can access and download publications and materials.
• South and Southeast Asian Art and Archaeology Index (ABIA) – The ABIA Project is a global network of scholars co-operating on an annotated bibliographic database for publishers covering South and Southeast Asian art and archaeology.
• Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-Lu – The Ming Shi-Lu is an open access resource to the annals of Ming China (1368 – 1644), in which place names and polities in Southeast Asia is featured greatly.
• Southeast Asian Archaeology Bibliographic Database – funded by the Henry Luce foundation and hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum, this website offers a web-based bibliography and a skeletal database.
• Southeast Asian Images & Text – A collection of teaching and research resources put together by the people at the University of Wisconsin. Contains a section of images of Angkor Wat.
• The Southeast Asian Treasure Connection – A website about shipwrecks, underwater treasure hunting and archaeology.
• Spatial Discovery – A collection of over 3,000 maps from the last 200 years organised by the National Library of Singapore.
• A Structured Corpus of Old Burmese Stone Inscriptions – This dataset is a structured corpus of Old Burmese stone inscriptions, largely based on material from the dataset ရှေးဟောင်းမြန်မာကျောက်စာများ Ancient Burmese Inscriptions, with additional material by Thein Tun and Tilman Frasch.
• UNESCO Database of National Cultural Heritage Laws
• Unesco Policy Monitoring Forum – The platform displays 2107 policies and measures from Periodic Reports of 102 countries submitted between 2012 and 2019.
• UNESCO World Heritage List – Alphabetical list of the World Heritage Sites on the UNESCO register.

• Angkor National Museum – Opened in 2007, the Angkor National Museum is located in Siem Reap and promises to show visitors the splendours of the ancient Angkor civilisation.
• Asian Art Museum – Online collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
• Asian Civilisations Museum – The museum’s collection features archaeological artefacts from Southeast Asia, China and India.
• Bangkok National Museum – Official website of the Bangkok National Museum, which houses an archaeological and art history collection.
• Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture – A museum dedicated to the sculpture of the ancient Cham, centred in South Vietnam. Website is in Vietnamese and English.
• Freer|Sackler Gallery Southeast Asia Collections – The Freer|Sackler is the Smithsonian’s museums of Asian art. The Southeast Asia web resource features an organized online collection, listings of exhibitions, events, conservation activities, and current research, as well as further resources and bibliography. The centerpiece is a robust interactive map of sacred sites in Southeast Asia, amply illustrated with site photos.
• Jabatan Muzium Malaysia (Department of Museums, Malaysia) – The official government website for the Department of Museums, Malaysia.
• Jabatan Muzium-Muzium, Brunei Darussalam – The Brunei Museums Department is responsible for protecting and preserving national heritage.
• Museum Nasional Indonesia – The Indonesian National Museum.
• Museum Pusaka Nias – Or the Museum of Nias Heritage in Nias Island, Sumatra. The blogsite is mainly in Bahasa Indonesia.
• National Museum of Cambodia – Official page.
• National Museum of the Philippines – Official page.
• National Museum of Singapore – Official page.
• Ni Xue Tang – A private museum in Singapore dedicated to Buddhist art.
• National Museum of Singapore – Collection showcases the history of Singapore from the 14th century to modern times.
• NUS Museum – Featuring an Archaeology Library of finds from digs across Singapore.
• Sarawak Museum – Borneo’s oldest museum has collections featuring archaeology and ethnology.
• Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum – The museum is located in the Bangkok University. Website in Thai, but there are links to the English-language newsletter which is regularly published.
• Southeast Asian collections on the Smithsonian – The Smithsonian has recently put their collections online in Open Access. The link goes specifically to Southeast Asian material.
• Vietnam National Museum of History – The Vietnam National Museum of History is a public service unit under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which is at the forefront of the system of Vietnam’s history-society museums.
• Yale University Indo-Pacific Gallery – The Gallery’s Indo-Pacific art collection represents the art of maritime Southeast Asia and includes about 1,900 objects, with strengths in ethnographic sculpture, Javanese gold from the prehistoric to the late medieval period, and Indonesian textiles.

• Alison in Cambodia – Dr Alison Carter of the University of Oregon works in Cambodia. The website is less updated nowadays, but still some good content on it. More active on Facebook.
• ASEAN Underwater/Maritime Archaeology Association – Platform for sharing maritime and underwater archaeology related news, articles and other items of interest among practitioners of underwater and maritime archaeology in the ASEAN Region. This was conceived during the “ASEAN Underwater Archaeology Conference on Cultural Heritage Protection and Possibility and Facility Study for Association of ASEAN Underwater Archaeology” held in Thailand on June 28, 2019.
• โบราณคดีเชิงวิพากษ์ Critical Archaeology (Facebook) – Run by the Department of History, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University. The page aims to critique and update the historical, art and archaeological news.
• EFEO Jakarta blog (French/Bahasa Indonesia) – Blog run by the Jakarta branch of the Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient.
• H-SEASIA Discussion Network – H-SEASIA is a forum for discussion and communications regarding the history and study of Southeast Asia.
• Field School of archaeology (Pyay), Myanmar – Facebook page.
• International Council of Monuments and Sites, Philippines – ICOMOS Philippines maintains a blog on the industrial heritage of the Philippines.
• It Surfaced Down Under! – A blog by Damien Huffer discussing the looted antiquities trade in the Southern Hemisphere.
• KhmerImagery – Page by Dr Vittorio Roveda on the Archaeology of Imagery from the Khmer Empire.
• Mission Archéologique Française au Myanmar – Public page of the Mission Archéologique Française au Myanmar (“MAFM”), a collaboration between the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the Myanmar Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture.
• Paths Unwritten – Website documenting ancient sites in Asia and the peoples who built them, and then adapting them into practical archaeological travel.
• PoP! Perspectives on the Past of Southeast Asia – Perspectives on the Past of Southeast Asia (PoP) is a research and reading group at the University of Sydney and the University of Oxford. We encourage diverse disciplinary approaches to the Southeast Asian Past, including archaeology, oral history, economic history, performance studies, philology, anthropology and museology. Facebook page.
• Reminiscing Old Java – Blog dedicated to sharing information about old Javanese civilization, including heritage, history, and culture. Last updated 2016.
• Southeast Asia and Pacific Bioarcharchaeology – a newsletter run by Kate Domett at James Cook University.
• Sustainability and Tourism Management at Archaeological and Heritage Sites – Facebook group spun off from a project I conducted for SEAMEO SPAFA in 2017.
• Tea Circle – Forum for new and emerging perspectives on Burma/Myanmar during its current period of political and economic transition.

• The Art of South and Southeast Asia, A Resource for Educators – Hosted on The Met and supported by The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Foundation.
• Michael Vickery memorial page – Devoted to the late Prof. Michael Vickery, contains a list of his publications.
• Pinisi – Site by Horst Liebner about the Sulawesi boatbuilding tradition.
• Rasmi Shoocongdej – Personal website of Dr Rasmi Shoocongdej of Silpakorn University, Thailand.
• Stephen B. Acabado – Personal website of Dr Stephen Acabado of University of California at Los Angeles.

• A list of influential books about Southeast Asian Archaeology, crowdsourced in 2018 with readers of this blog.
• Areca Books – Based out of Penang, Has a niche focus on works on social history, biographies, cultural heritage, architecture, the environment and visual arts
• Fine Arts Department Bookstore – Run by the Fine Arts Department of Thailand. Most publications are in Thai.
• River Books – Specialist publisher based out of Thailand with a selection of archaeology and cultural heritage-related articles from the region.
• SEAMEO SPAFA Publications – Most of SEAMEO SPAFA’s publications going back 40 years can be download from this site as PDFs [Disclosure: I work full-time for SEAMEO SPAFA and I manage this publications page as well].

Here is a collection of online and software tools that might be useful for researchers in archaeology. Most are free, while some are affiliate links which mean I may earn a commission if you click the link and make a purchase. They will be marked by an asterisk.

Image Processing / Graphics

• Pixlr X – Quick and easy photo editing using your internet browser – no download required. The free version is great for casual photo edits. There’s a pro (paid) version but I’ve never had to use it.
• DStretch / ImageJ – DStretch is an image enhancement software I use for detecting faint rock art. It is a donationware plugin for ImageJ, a free image processing software developed by the US National Institute of Health.
• Metashape: – Formerly known as Photoscan. Photogrammetry software that lets you create 3D models from photographs, plus other features linked with GIS.
• Adobe Creative Cloud* – PhotoShop , Lightroom and Illustrator are the most-widely used set of programmes in the industry for photo editing, organising and vector graphics respectively. It is a subscription model (so you can’t get around not paying for it), but they have several package options depending on which software you want to use. Alternatively…
• GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) – A free and Open Source alternative to Photoshop.
• Darktable – A free and Open Source alternative to Lightroom.
• Inkscape – A free and Open Source alternative to Illustrator.
• Adobe Spark – An online and mobile app for creating graphics and short videos on the go.

Referencing and Citation Managers

• Mendeley – Citation and reference manager that can extract information from PDFs. Works with or without an internet connection. Free with 2GB online storage.
• Zotero – Free and Open Source citation manager that works with or without an internet connection. Especially useful when citing online material.
• Endnote – The most full-featured citation manager, but it comes at a price. If you are a student or staff at a university, check to see if you already have it available to you.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

• ArcGIS – Esri’s ArcGIS seems to be the most professional and most widely-used GIS but the prices and subscription plan can be quite prohibitive. If you are part of a university check to see if you already have access to the software. They have extensive training videos for all levels of users.
• Google Earth Pro – The desktop version is free for download.
• QGIS – A Free and Open Source Geographic Information System. There are a number of tutorials out there for using QGIS in archaeology, eg: here and here.
• ARCHES Project – Arches is an open source software platform freely available for cultural heritage organizations to independently deploy to help them manage their cultural heritage data.

Creating a Website

• Google Sites – A simple drag-and-drop website builder, free if you have a Google account. Good for building simple websites and you can add a custom domain name to the site if you have one.
• WordPress.com* – For more complex websites that need to be updated regularly, e.g. a blog, WordPress is a popular choice. WordPress.com gives you the option of a free website by signing up to an account (with basic functionality, or your can pay extra for upgrades or a full-service option.
• WordPress.org – Advanced users may want to get their own domain name and host and install WordPress themselves. The WordPress engine is free and open source, and this way you can benefit from the many customisations available.
• Bluehost – A complete web hosting provider that houses your website online. Offers shared and dedicated server space, and also easy WordPress installation.
• Vodien* – The web host I use for SEAArch is based in Singapore and has gone through several name changes over the years as it has merged with or bought over by other companies. Today it is known as Vodien, and has been pretty good thus far. I’ve been with them from the start on a Shared Hosting plan, and recently upgraded to a small Business plan on account of increased bandwidth use.

Office Applications

• Microsoft Office – The world’s most popular suite of workplace software, including three Word (word processing), Excel (spreadsheets) and PowerPoint (presentations).
• Dropbox* – Online storage locker, useful for keeping documents online for easy sharing. Setting up an account is free and comes with 2gb of space.
• Google Docs / Sheets / Slides / Forms – A cloud-based alternative to Microsoft Office, free for personal use and also available for business users.
• LibreOffice – A free and Open Source alternative to Microsoft – with a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation maker, vector graphics editor, and math formulae editor.
• ExpressVPN* – A Virtual Private Network lets you connect to another computer and browse the internet using that connection. It can help make your internet secure when using public connections (e.g. a public wifi), or to get around geographic restrictions when viewing some sites.
• Scrivener* – Scrivener is a writing tool especially for long-form writing that allows you to write the way you want. I used Scrivener for my thesis and my research papers, it’s also been used by journalists and novelists. Highly recommended for writing.

Mobile Apps