This paper reflects on the study of archaeology in central Europe, where recently this discipline, in countries such as the Czech Republic, has spread extensively within the university environment. This process shows the need to consider not only why this is happening, but also how this process should be directed and how far the archaeology curricula in individual university departments should diversify from their traditional focus. It has been suggested that contemporary archaeology has a unique opportunity to attract young people interested both in humanities and, ever more frequently, also in natural science due to the strong links between these disciplines.