San Diego Archaeological Center

The San Diego Archaeological Center is a curation facility and museum where visitors can learn the story of how people have lived in San Diego County for the past 10,000 years. In addition to its role as a museum, the Center serves as an education and research facility and is the only local organization dedicated to the collection, study, curation and exhibition of San Diego County’s archaeological artifacts.

The Center Museum has changing exhibits and hands-on activities that explore 10,000 years of history of the San Diego region through the archaeological record. Learn about the life-ways of early Native American hunter-gatherers who lived in our region and the many groups and immigrants who have contributed to our region’s archaeological record.

Learn the basics of archaeology, explore our hands-on research area or view our new curatorial vaults and research area through the viewing portal. The Center actively curates archaeological collections and you may have a unique opportunity to see staff and interns cataloging and researching artifacts during your visit.

Current & Upcoming Exhibitions

By Land and By Sea

New information is challenging our worldview and causing us to rethink what we know about ancient peoples. Over the last 50 years, archaeologists thought they knew how the first humans arrived in the New World and spread out to different areas of the Americas. Recent finding have begun to dispute previously accepted theories and have sparked a surge of interest in New World archaeology. In this exhibit, explore these theories about who, when, and how these early peoples came into the New World.

Archaeology 101

Archaeology is the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains. In this exhibit, learn the basics about archaeology through hands-on activities for children and adults.

The Life Story of a Pot

Explore how local pottery was made and used.

It’s A Crime

Every year thousands of artifacts and antiquities are stolen and wind up in private collections, unavailable to the public. Learn why keeping artifacts is against the law.