Beyond the Law

This article employs actor-network theory to investigate the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in archaeology. This article aims to raise concerns about ethical issues that should be addressed when using UAS for archaeological research. This article contends that human and non-human actors can contribute to ethical issues such as ethics dumping, invasion of privacy, and cultural insensitivity and ignorance of the local community. The article examines the status quo of existing legal and ethical frameworks and contends that the current rules are outdated and insufficient to address ethical concerns. The laws primarily concern security, safety, and flight operations rather than context-specific for archaeology. A clear guide to data and UAS ethics for archaeology should be addressed. Although they emphasize how human archaeologists should behave as professionals with ethics, they fail to address the technological aspect, which has created biases and raised ethical concerns. Understanding this relational network and power dynamics through ANT, the article suggests that to address the ethical concerns, both human and non-human actors should be considered, and the law and code of conduct should apply to both

Ethical code · Ethical issues · Ignorance · Legal Ethics · Status quo · 3D Surveying and Cultural Heritage · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies