Received: 15 October 2021 Accepted: 20 December 2021 DOI: 10.1111/aman.13745 RESEARCH ARTICLE Atomic archaeology: Italian innovation and American adventurism Lynn Meskell Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor, Department of Anthropology, School of Arts & Sciences, Penn Museum, and Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, AD White Professor-at-Large, Cornell University Correspondence Lynn Meskell, Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Email: lmeskell@sas.upenn.edu Abstract This article charts one episode in the history of archaeological field science following the end of World War II and its place within a nascent military-industrial-academic complex. It is an account of how archaeological innovation was tied to, and developed directly out of, US nuclear ambition and the leveraging of “peaceful” atomic research as well as American Cold War collaborations with European allies that successfully com- bined science, exploration, and culture for mutual benefit. The period covered is one of the most generative moments in the development of instrumentation and subsurface techniques, involving two mid-century men who realized the potential of atomic appli- cations in archaeology. Carlo Lerici, an Italian engineer and industrialist, and Froelich Rainey, director of the Penn Museum, were both men of science, culture, and indus- try. Their collaboration brought together governments, corporations, and universities to develop pathbreaking experimentation across laboratories and fieldsites. My aim is to reveal the connectivity between these disparate arenas and to underscore that such endeavors are anything but new; rather, nuclear science, tech companies, private foun- dations, and philanthropists, coupled with the activities of the military and intelligence community, have a deeply entrenched history in archaeology. KEYWORDS atomic applications, Cold War, history of archaeology, Italian archaeology, military-industrial- academic complex Resumen Este artículo traza un episodio en la historia de la ciencia del campo arqueológico después del final de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y su lugar dentro un complejo militar- industrial-académico naciente. Es un relato de cómo la innovación arqueológica estaba vinculada a, y desarrollada directamente fuera de, la ambición nuclear de los Estados Unidos y el aprovechamiento de la investigación atómica “pacífica” así como las colab- oraciones estadounidenses en la guerra fría con aliados europeos que combinaron exitosamente ciencia, exploración y cultura para beneficio mutuo. El período cubierto es uno de los momentos más generativos en el desarrollo de instrumentación y técnicas de lo subterráneo, envolviendo a dos hombres de mitad de siglo quienes reconocieron el potencial de aplicaciones atómicas en arqueología. Carlo Lerici, un ingeniero italiano Am. Anthropol. 2022;1–15. © 2022 by the American Anthropological Association. 1 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aman