This dissertation explores the role of archaeological labor in the development of archaeological research design, method, and interpretation, and how archaeological work shapes the people who practice it. I define an emerging body of literature which I call Studies of Archaeological Labor (SAL) and argue that it furnishes critical interventions in archaeological theory and practice, and disciplinary history. Through a series of case studies, I consider the historical and future development of the discipline of classical archaeology, an archaeological sub-discipline which has only recently begun to engage with SAL. Using material from archaeological archives in Greece and the United States, I consider the historical roots of our present labor practices by examining cultures of archaeological work at several American-run excavations in Greece and Cyprus during the first half of the twentieth century, and describe the labor conditions and emergent relations that constituted the discipline of classical archaeology in Greece during this critical period of professionalization. I aim to situate archaeological labor within its broader political and economic contexts, to understand how archaeological projects changed the communities of archaeologists and laborers who took part in them, and to consider the role of archaeological imaginaries in mediating our perception of and attitudes toward archaeological labor. I conclude by reflecting on what strategies archaeologists and archaeological workers might pursue to protect themselves, the discipline, and the knowledge they produce.