Session „Empowering Archeology“ – 5th DHA conference 2018 (original) (raw)

2018

Archaeological research is mainly carried out by archaeologists in collaboration with specialists from other disciplines (such as ancient studies, architecture, ethnology, biology, zoology, etc.), whereby many work steps are carried out digitally. Archaeology has a strong interdisciplinary character, but on closer inspection, one realizes that interdisciplinarity has its limits: Archaeological research is indeed often characterized by a high degree of interdisciplinarity and the use of numerous digitally executed methods. However, it can also be observed that although specialists from many different disciplines work together on an archaeological question, there is often a lack of interdisciplinary results – this is reflected, among other things, in the fact that corresponding publications (also in collective works) are published separately or parallel to each other. Individual partial results can even contradict each other without the necessary scientific exchange between the individual project partners. Such interdisciplinary, digital studies are characterized in archaeology, on the one hand, by field research (such as excavation, material surveys, and prospections) in the form of the systematic use of various digital tools. These are aimed at the high-resolution recording of material culture through the detailed documentation of archaeological finds and features, sampling, etc. Respective data collection forms a steadily growing base of diverse raw digital data. On the other hand, equally various ways of processing, analyzing, and publishing these data, as well as the results derived from them, form further focal points of (interdisciplinary) archaeological work. For each of these steps, it is possible to carry them out digitally. All in all, digital archaeology can be described as extensive, data-driven research, which, however, can often develop into an unmanageable sea of data due to the involvement of many different specialists. This session, therefore, attempts to situate digital archaeology more precisely in the current research landscape based on general considerations as well as specific case studies and thus strengthen its position in the research community further. Accordingly, the questions of how digital archaeology is defined and characterized and relates to the digital humanities will be addressed. In addition, it is to be determined whether the access to diverse archaeological data can be simplified for non-specialists through increasing networking of these data. It can also be considered that congruent to such networking, the interdisciplinary character of the subject "archaeology" as a whole is strengthened, for example, through a dedicated focus on LOD.