Big Data i arkeologin : Möjligheter, risker och etiska reflektioner

Sammanfattning

In this thesis I examine current and future uses of Big Data in archaeology. New technologies have enabled a range of data capture, data storage, and analyses. Digitization in our society has brought new ways of working for archaeologists and the increased amount of data affects how we can understand the world. Big Data reshapes the research process and creates new risks and opportunities for digital archaeology. Several sources have been examined in order to understand what this looks like in archaeology, such as articles published in the journal Internet Archaeology, a questionnaire answered by archaeologists and digital humanists, interviews by two representatives of archaeology, one representative of digital humanities and a chatbot. The archaeological material has become more accessible. Big Data contributes to data-driven science which enforces a paradigm shift. As data is created faster in various ways and to a voluminous extent archaeologists are forced to work with issues related to the management and storage of data. Digital humanists and archaeologists emphasize that Big Data brings efficient working methods and analyses that can contribute with new questions and reliable knowledge. This can increase the relevance of humanities subjects in the research community. That being said, the nature of Big Data often includes quantitative structured data and its result can be characterized as objective and trustworthy. Perceptions of data as bias-free and that Big Data affects theory to become obsolete may jeopardize the use of source criticism. There is a lack of standardization in how to measure and store data in archaeology which contributes to decontextualization of data. I urge that archaeologists should reflect on how cutting edge data-modeling and AI-modeling can assist in the research process as well as how ethical aspects of data should be considered in order not to risk interpretations overlooking people, places and practices.