The computer in archaeology: A critical survey

Abstract

Eur years ago the last general review of computer applications in archaeology was published in this journal (Chenhall, 1968). At that time, it was adequate for the author to outline three studies and mention a fourth to give a representative picture of current work in this field. Since then the situation has changed dramatically. The number and variety of computer applications in archaeology today are so great that it is virtually impossible to select any small number of individual projects as representative. Instead, entire areas of research must be covered in a general discussion, and a simple listing of current projects would probably be longer than this entire article.Archaeology is now fully in a period of experimenting with the computer and gradually adopting it as one of its major tools for research. Characteristic of this period is a healthy concern with the data and the manipulative, analytical, and statistical methods which the computer makes it possible to apply in archaeological research. Healthy, because most archaeologists have grasped the point, recently made by Chenhall (1971a:4-5), that the computer is simply a fast and powerful machine. Although it permits many previously impossible things, it cannot perform miracles on its own. A full and conscious awareness of precisely what is being done in the computer in any analysis is therefore absolutely essential for archaeologically sensible and meaningful use.The growing concern in archaeology with the new methods made possible by computers is reflected in the increasing size, frequency, and importance of sessions on analytical and statistical methods at professional meetings. Indeed, in each of the three years that have passed since Chenhall's review article in this journal, a special meeting has been held, devoted only to such problems:

Editorial Introduction: Web-based Archaeology and Collaborative Research

“…Fieldwork teams comprise data recording experts using diverse non-digital and digital methods that in turn produce increasingly entangled datasets. While digital technologies have been part of archaeology for more than fifty years (Chenhall 1968;Richards 1998;Whallon 1972), archaeologists still look for more efficient methodologies to integrate digital practices of fieldwork recording with data management, analysis, and ultimately interpretation.…”

Building Scholars and Communities of Practice in Digital Heritage and Archaeology

“…Digital technology is impacting all areas of archaeology and heritage, including research, preservation, education, outreach, publication, and scholarly communication. To be sure, archaeology has a long history of innovative engagement with information and computing technologies (Ascher and Ascher 1963; Cowgill 1967, 1968; Chenhall 1967, 1968; Deetz 1965; Scholtz and Chenhall 1976; Whallon 1972). Generally speaking, these efforts have unfolded along several specific tracks: electronic and digital data (storage, retrieval, analysis, modeling, etc.…”

Introduction to the themed section ‘digital heritage and the public’

“…It was in the early years that conferences on the use of computers in the fields of the humanities were first organised (see, e.g. Leed 1966) and the first fellowships were given to researchers to work in this area (Lieb 1966). The first publications containing digital analyses of heritage material also appeared in that decade (Brown, Freeman, and Martin 1964), while new ways of organising research programmes making use of the new methods of handling data were proposed (Binford 1965).…”