The Digital Turn in Australian Archaeology?

Canberra.
The final speaker in this DHA 2012 session is Sarah Colley, who brings us back to a core definition of archaeology (as dealing with the human past, and writing history, based on archaeological evidence). There is a wide range of stakeholder groups in Australian archaeology, from government agencies through local groups to media organisations, with no requirement for formal, central accreditation.

There are a number of codes of ethics for archaeologists in Australia, through; these deal inter alia with stewardship of tangible and intangible heritage, the rights of key stakeholders and traditional owners, minimum standards for fieldwork and analysis, intellectual property, the public right to know, client confidentiality, and legal frameworks.

Archaeology now uses a wide range of digital technologies not just for its core scholarly work, but also for the presentation and dissemination of its findings; this further extends ethical issues (and creates new ones, too). There are issues with archaeological collections and information at risk; some such materials exist in unsustainable, obsolete, and unarchived formats which must be translated into sustainable digital formats, but there are also problems with resource quality and ownership here.

Archaeologists have an ambivalent relationship with digital technologies – they like the new opportunities which such technologies raise, but are also frustrated with the quality of available platforms, and with the new pressures on work practices which such tools generate.