Archaeology in the AI Era
Demystifying powerful and problematic systems shaping the future of the past
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21147720 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eric Kansa (0000-0001-5620-4764, Contextual Change (United States), corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Issue | 71 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Internet Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1363-5387 • E-ISSN: 1363-5387 |
| Publisher | Council for British Archaeology (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.11141/ia.71.15 |
| OpenAlex | W7165938844 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 33 |
This essay explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) and the generative "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) services they power impact archaeology's information ecosystem. Most of the discussion focuses on the dangers of escalating costs, commercial dependency, indeterminacy and reliability, and the potential for bias amplification. The essay highlights the need for structural reforms in archaeology's professional incentive systems, especially those systems that measure and reward publishing practices
Generative grammar · Incentive · Indeterminacy (philosophy) · Measure (data warehouse) · Power (physics) · Publishing · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction · Language and cultural evolution
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Artificial Intelligence and the Interpretation of the Past
Debating AI in Archaeology
AI and the problem of knowledge collapse
Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing
Slow Archaeology, Punk Archaeology, and the ‘Archaeology of Care
Managing Artificial Intelligence in Archeology. An overview
Current Digital Archaeology
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |