This chapter presents the major themes addressed by the volume while concurrently providing an overview of social networks and networking in the history of archaeology from the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. The chapter first introduces the rationale of the volume and positions it within the history of archaeology as a research field. Informed by network science, geographies of science, and actor-network theory, the chapter then explains the three major concepts around which the book is built—network, social network, and networking. This is followed by an overview of the types of social networks that have formed throughout the history of archaeology, along with why and how these networks were created, maintained, and used in different personal, professional, institutional, and geopolitical settings. The introduction also reflects on the role played by social networks and networking in the development of archaeology and in archaeological actors’ personal and professional trajectories and practices.