Archaeological Science, Archaeology of Science: Tools for Closing the Gap between Practice and Ideals

Computational methods are increasingly being used by archaeologists and appearing in archaeological science journals. But does this make archaeology more or less scientific? On one hand, computers are anti-science because they are often used as black boxes. On the other hand, many computational tools enable unprecedented transparency of the analytical workflow. I briefly review how archaeological science has recently been defined and how the practice compares to the ideals. I then evaluate these definitions in light of the ideals of the early practice of science, informed by an archaeology of science. I focus on the case of Robert Boyle, one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method and his vacuum pump. I argue that computational tools, due to the transparency they enable, have potential to be revolutionary in archaeology, and have a unique role to play in closing the gap between the practice of archaeological science and the ideals of archaeological science.

I briefly survey some of the tools in current use in archaeology and related fields that have potential for greater impact. This document includes the PowerPoint slides from the presentation.