Session: #373

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
6. A Decade after the ‘Third Science Revolution in Archaeology’
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
Discussing the Future of Big Data for the Study of the Human Past
Content:
The use of Big Data for the study of the human history is a major trending topic. In this session, we want to promote a fruitful dialogue that engages with multiple and diverse issues concerning the usage of Big Data for the study of the human past.
Much is being promised of how Big Data and interfaces with modelling methods such as Artificial Intelligence will revolutionize our study of the past. However, there is apparently less debate on the underlying theoretical framework that should support such initiatives. There are also reasonable concerns that highly centralized systems, typically based in Western countries, may appropriate data from the rest of the world resulting in a kind of “data colonialism”. Whereas the use of rigid metadata standards can produce highly-structured data, which is useful to address specific research questions, it also risks marginalizing some sectors of research which are less easily subject to standardization. Another concern, relates to the potential dilution of original data production efforts by those working in the field, lab, or library. As Big Data projects draw in increasingly more attention, it becomes necessary to faithfully acknowledge those who produced the data in the first place. Related to this, safekeeping and impartial original IDs, for instance those given by the excavators, across databases is sometimes a neglected asset to maintain the context of samples and allow for their recontextualization. A broader question concerns what should be collaborative and network models for Big Data initiatives bringing together various archaeological and historical disciplines.
We welcome both contributions offering a theoretical perspective and case studies that showcase the development of innovative organizational models and technological solutions.
Keywords:
Big Data, Theory, Networks, Collaborative Models, Artificial Inteligence
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Carlo Cocozza (Italy) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Ricardo Fernandes (Germany) 2,3,4
Carmine Lubritto (Italy) 5
Eva Rosenstock (Germany) 6
Affiliations:
1. Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften
2. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Archaeology
3. University of Oxford, School of Archaeology
4. Masaryk University, Arne Faculty of Arts
5. Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Ambientali, Biologiche e Farmaceutiche
6. Universität Bonn, Bonn Center for ArcheoSciences