Paul Cripps (Wessex Archaeology, UK)

Once upon a time, computers were at best peripheral to the archaeological process. This may seem strange to younger members of the audience but this was not actually that long ago. Computer applications in archaeology were largely restricted to the sorts of tasks computers did best, predominantly quantitative methods. Attempts to get outside this quantitative box were met with accusations of reductionism, equating computational approaches with the kinds of approaches advocated in processual archaeology. Today, with the rise of the internet and associated technologies, archaeological computing has become core to what we as archaeologists do: Databases and GIS are in many cases the norm for handling data and undertaking analysis, multimedia and the web are core to dissemination and community activities and our ontologies are being formalised using semantic tools. If contemporary computing is typified by its social aspects and the democratisation of technology, then the impact on archaeological theory is apparent in some of the themes of this conference: Abundance of useful technology combined with the ease with which much of it can be deployed is changing the face of archaeology and archaeological theory. Online mashups allow anyone to present data in novel ways. Online mapping tools allow anyone to create and use digital maps. Online places to store and reuse data allow anyone to get involved. Online collaborative spaces provide new opportunities for discourse and formal ontologies are laying the foundations for a semantic web of archaeological information. This paper will examine how computing, particularly archaeological computing, and the broader social context in which it resides has developed in recent years and the impact this is having on archaeological theoretical discourse using examples such as the development of formal ontological models, changes in understandings of space and time, the growth in social networking and the rise in web-based applications and portals, particularly those which make use of web-based mapping.