Computational archaeology

For the science of recovering computer data from obsolete media or formats, see Data archaeology.

Computational archaeology describes computer-based analytical methods for the study of long-term human behaviour and behavioural evolution. As with other sub-disciplines that have prefixed 'computational' to their name (e.g., computational biology, computational physics and computational sociology), the term is reserved for (generally mathematical) methods that could not realistically be performed without the aid of a computer.

Computational archaeology may include the use of geographical information systems (GIS), especially when applied to spatial analyses such as viewshed analysis and least-cost path analysis as these approaches are sufficiently computationally complex that they are extremely difficult if not impossible to implement without the processing power of a computer. Likewise, some forms of statistical and mathematical modelling,[1] and the computer simulation of human behaviour and behavioural evolution using software tools such as Swarm or Repast would also be impossible to calculate without computational aid. The application of a variety of other forms of complex and bespoke software to solve archaeological problems, such as human perception and movement within built environments using software such as University College London's Space Syntax program, also falls under the term 'computational archaeology'.

The acquisition, documentation and analysis of archaeological finds at excavations and in museums is an important field having pottery analysis as one of the major topics. In this area 3D-acquisition techniques like structured light scanning (SLS), photogrammetric methods like "structure from motion" (SfM), computed tomography as well as their combinations[2][3] provide large data-sets of numerous objects for digital pottery research. These techniques are increasingly integrated into the in-situ workflow of excavations.[4] The Austrian subproject of the Corpus vasorum antiquorum (CVA) is seminal for digital research on finds within museums.[5]

Computational archaeology is also known as "archaeological informatics" (Burenhult 2002, Huggett and Ross 2004[6]) or "archaeoinformatics" (sometimes abbreviated as "AI", but not to be confused with artificial intelligence).

  1. ^ Sinclair, Anthony (2016). "The Intellectual Base of Archaeological Research 2004-2013: a visualisation and analysis of its disciplinary links, networks of authors and conceptual language". Internet Archaeology (42). doi:10.11141/ia.42.8.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference CHNT23_Karl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference CHNT23_Karl_Video was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference JOGA20_Fecher was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference CVABeiheft13_Trinkl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Internet Archaeol. 15. Archaeological Informatics. Beyond Technology". intarch.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-04-27.