Session: Archaeological data work: Interdisciplinary perspectives to interdisciplinary practices

Session at the European Association for Archaeologists 2026 conference in Athens with Sabina Batlle Baró (Universitat de Barcelona) and Costis Dallas (Vilniaus universitetas).

Abstract

Digitalisation and datafication of archaeological practices mean that rapidly evolving data work has become a central aspect of practising archaeology. Instead of documenting finds and features and publishing results, archaeology is increasingly about making, processing, organising, managing and (re)using data that is increasingly digital and expected to be findable and accessible online, interoperable for digital processing and reusable for a wide range of secondary purposes. The data work in archaeology has expanded also in how it has become an increasingly interdisciplinary enterprise requiring multiple types of expertise beyond archaeology, how archaeoogical data is increasingly used outside of archaeology and how understanding archaeological data work benefits of perspectives from outside of archaeology.

The purpose of this session is to invite presentations of evidence-based, theoretical and practical work relating to contemporary and historical archaeological data work to inquire into how data work is conducted in practice, what influences data work and how, what implications different types and approaches to data work have on data, archaeology and archaeological knowledge production, what methods and theories help us to understand archaeological data work, and how we can theorise and practice it in the future. Submissions are invited from archaeologists but also from other disciplines conducting research on archaeological data work, working with archaeological data and practitioners who are engaged in data work.