Description:
Archaeology has gone digital for some time now! Topics such as GIS databases, 3D models, drone photography, meta- and para-data, semantic mapping, text mining, simulation, and social network analysis have become commonplace in archaeological discourse and practice. Digital and technological advancements seemingly offer limitless promises for data recording, analysis and dissemination. Yet, after several decades of innovation, we must ask ourselves which of these promises are actually fulfilled, and which persistent impasses are present. Today, some reflexive questions are more important than ever. In particular, when, how and why do our innovative archaeology tools fail? Do we approach our archaeological projects with a digital wand and (implicitly or explicitly) expect a magical solution? And when there is indeed a digital solution, at what expense does it come?
In this volume, scholars and practitioners in the field discuss the state of the art, as well as the promises and impasses that digital approaches to archaeology entail. The authors discuss the current state of teaching digital archaeology, the societal impact of digital innovations, current issues in archaeological data management, promises and limitations of isotopic research and remote sensing techniques, and why subfields such as agent-based modeling and serious gaming struggle to keep momentum.
Brief description:
Tuna Kalaycı is an assistant professor of computational archaeology. His main quantitative interests are remote sensing, data analysis, and modelling. He also tackles questions of landscape archaeology and (ancient) cities. In particular, he focuses on productive landscapes, landscapes of movement, walking/walkability and neighbourhoods. His work also aims to positively challenge modern concepts, such as digitalisation, machine automation and smart cities. He is affiliated with the SAILS Initiative. He is a member of the Kerkenes Project, working on Iron Age urban dynamics.
Tuna holds degrees in Statistics (BSc), Settlement Archaeology (MSc), and Anthropology (PhD). His dissertation work at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, focused on the stability of urban systems during environmental crises. Next, he held a post-doctoral researcher position at the IMS-FORTH (Greece), specialising in remote sensing approaches to archaeology. Before joining Leiden University, he was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellow at the ISPC-CNR (Italy) and Durham University (UK). His "Modern Geospatial Technologies for Ancient Movement Praxis" project produced computational tools to understand Bronze Age traffic in Upper Mesopotamia.