Archaeological data often come in the form of counts. Understanding why counts of artifacts, subsistence remains, or features vary across time and space is central to archaeological inquiry. A central statistical method to model such variation is through regression, yet despite sophisticated advances in computational approaches to archaeology, practitioners do not have a standard approach for building, validating, or interpreting the results of count regression. Drawing on advances in ecology, we outline a framework for evaluating regressions with archaeological count data that includes suggestions for model fitting, diagnostics, and interpreting results. We hope these suggestions provide a foundation for advancing regression with archaeological count data to further our understanding of the past.

Writing for publication will be central to students’ future careers, so learning this skill should be integral to their graduate training. In a recent graduate seminar, we set up an assignment for which students would write a digital review (DR) and receive periodic feedback on their work through an innovative mock peer-review roundtable workshop. Each student wrote a DR intended for actual publication in the journal Advances in Archaeological Practice. Students worked closely with the instructor and the journal editor on their individual topics, outlines, and abstracts. They also peer-reviewed each other's drafts and discussed their feedback as part of the roundtable workshop, which simulated real reviewers. Finally, each student wrote cover letters and prepared images for submission to the journal. This exercise demystified the peer-review process for students who had little prior knowledge about publication, prepared students for responding to reviewer comments from varying viewpoints, and helped students understand the additional steps involved in publication. Although it was challenging to scale this exercise to a large class, we hope that others will also try and share results from these types of authentic real-world training experiments to advance graduate pedagogy in our discipline and beyond.

Recent years have seen the rapid expansion of airborne and spaceborne remote-sensing products adopted by archaeologists for interpreting ancient landscapes and managing heritage resources. A growing and increasingly specialized literature attests to the promise and availability of commercial and publicly funded satellite imagery, as well as UAV-mounted sensors across a range of resolutions and price points. In the South Caucasus (including the countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), a growing commitment to landscape approaches in archaeology is stimulating the adoption of satellite remote sensing as an important new tool for identifying and managing archaeological resources while tracing the impact of historic land-use alterations in survey areas. Nevertheless, budgetary challenges and a lack of training opportunities among international partners and heritage organizations outside of the funding streams of large academic institutions can lead to widening technological gulfs in the discipline that reinforce colonial relationships. Building on recent technical articles covering specific imagery datasets, this article aims to address this by providing a general review of free or low-cost remotely sensed datasets available to archaeologists, with the aim of broadening awareness of these important tools and their vocabularies, and illustrating them with recent published examples from the South Caucasus.

Software now allows archaeologists to document excavations in more detail than ever before through rich, born-digital datasets. In comparison, paper documentation of past excavations (a valuable corpus of legacy data) is prohibitively difficult to work with. This pilot study explores creating custom software to digitize paper field notes from the 1970s excavations of the Gulkana site into machine-readable text and maps to be compatible with born-digital data from subsequent excavations in the 1990s. This site, located in Alaska's Copper River Basin, is important to archaeological understanding of metalworking innovation by precontact Northern Dene people, but is underrepresented in the literature because no comprehensive map of the site exists. The process and results of digitizing this corpus are presented in hopes of aiding similar efforts by other researchers.

Despite advocacy of landscape approaches in cultural resource management (CRM) and critiques of the site concept, CRM data collection methods in the western United States continue to focus on individual archaeological sites as units of observation, analysis, and management. The transect-recording unit (TRU) method strikes a balance between conventional site-based recording methods and site-less survey approaches by dividing survey space into a grid of uniformly sized cells for recording all cultural manifestations observed across a survey area. TRU survey generates site boundaries required by CRM regulations while retaining a fine-grained spatial framework for landscape-level research and management. This article discusses the technical requirements of the TRU system and its potential for improving landscape-level research and management. Advances in digital recording technologies and analysis techniques render the method efficient and effective in identifying cultural resource distributions and characteristics otherwise obscured by conventional approaches. The research and management potential of the TRU system is illustrated through identification and interpretation of precontact foot trails in New Mexico's Tularosa Basin. These trails are essentially invisible during pedestrian survey but are readily identifiable as linear patterns using aggregated landscape-scale TRU survey data from multiple survey projects, providing novel insight into precontact routes of movement and exchange.

In the last decade, archaeologists have been using human-occupied interactive digital built environments to investigate human agency, settlement, and behavior. To document this evidence, we provide here one method of conducting drone-based photogrammetry and GIS mapping from within these digital spaces based on well-established methods conducted in physical landscapes. Mapping is an integral part of archaeology in the natural world, but it has largely eluded researchers in these new, populated digital landscapes. We hope that our proposed method helps to resolve this issue. We argue that employing archaeological methods in digital environments provides a successful methodological framework to investigate human agency in digital spaces for anthropological purposes and has the potential for extrapolating data from human-digital landscape interactions and applying them to their natural analogues.

This article outlines a model for teaching undergraduate and graduate archaeology students the skills for working with open-access archaeological data and using digital tools for analysis. Due to the often limited opportunities for students to learn methods directly for data reuse, large archaeological datasets remain stagnant and unused in digital archives. The bloat of unused data stands as a major ethical hurdle in heritage fields. This article explores an approach for addressing this issue, which is to incorporate data and digital literacy training into standard archaeological curricula. This approach consists of covering a wide range of topics that contribute to digital and data fluency that include both practical digital skills and discussions aimed at contextualizing the tools into larger, ethical, and sociopolitical frameworks. This article offers summaries of the activities and tutorials developed for this project and provides open access to all of the resources for future use.

Digital tools are widely used in archaeology for excavation, research, and communication of results. Recently, due in large part to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the use of these resources in the classroom. The use of digital games for teaching undergraduate archaeology courses has been explored by a number of educators, but the majority of instructors continue to see this medium as lacking any particular educational merit. To combat this conclusion, in this article, the author explores some of the ways that unmodified digital games can be integrated into undergraduate archaeology courses to inspire critical discussions. She discusses two main types of games—conceptual simulations and realist simulations—to show how these can help students better understand theoretical approaches to archaeological interpretation and to consider the most effective form of archaeological reconstructions for different audiences. The author highlights her own experiences teaching with Assassin's Creed: Origins to show the benefits and challenges of working with this medium, and she includes student responses to the use of digital games in discussions. An example of a student assignment and an example of a project prompt are provided as supplemental materials to further encourage the use of digital games in the classroom.

The last decades have seen a renewed interest in the study of argumentation in archaeology, particularly in response to the overproduction of weak and unreliable interpretations and explanations. Concurrently, recent appeals for scientific transparency and efficiency in the management of archaeological information in digital form have stressed the necessity of explicitly showing the processes followed. A growing body of literature has identified inference to the best explanation (IBE) as the most adequate way of interpreting archaeological data, although it has quietly existed for over a century. Despite this, the investigation of IBE-based models for recording archaeological reasoning remains a largely under-researched topic. The author concludes with a novel IBE-based model for recording archaeological argumentation.

Digital archaeologists claim that their practices have proven to be an important tool for mediating conflict, ensuring that the digital turn in archaeology entails engaging in current political issues. This can be questioned by analysing a copy of the Syrian Arch of Triumph. The original was destroyed in 2015. A year later, a copy was carved out of Egyptian marble; the replica was constructed thanks to digital documentation, which allowed archaeologists to create a 3D model. The arch was placed in various Western locations; however, it never reached Syria. Hybridity, the cultural and political significance of the arch’s replica and its ‘Grand Tour’ invite us to think about different interpretive layers of this artefact of ideological discourse (ontological, epistemological, ethical). In this paper, the replica of the Syrian arch will be analysed through the frameworks of post-colonial theory and technology studies. Both perspectives provide an insight into promising advantages and alarming drawbacks of such digital practices. This paper argues that the case of a copy of the Syrian Arch of Triumph on the one hand reflects the contemporary colonial technocracy in heritage politics (an ethical dimension), and on the other demonstrates that an ideological aspect of its digital reconstruction emerges from a speculative anticipation of what might constitute the universal value of world heritage in the future (an onto-epistemological dimension).

Historic archaeological resources in the American West are increasingly at risk of loss because of prolonged droughts, wildfires, earthquakes, general deterioration, and the negative impact of increasing visitation. Casual visitors regularly remove objects from their original contexts in the landscape, either taking them home as souvenirs or bringing them to local staff because they are concerned about the items disappearing. As a result, many sites of cultural significance are losing the ability to convey the information required for scholarly interpretation and for drafting community and life histories of their past residents. We argue that citizen science and mobile apps specifically designed for site stewardship are viable tools for alleviating negative human impacts on cultural landscapes and enhancing our capacity to record and monitor sites of cultural heritage. We contend that our approach uses an innovative interface, the Citizen Preservationist app, an open-source hybrid mobile/desktop software we developed to foster both current use and protection of archaeological sites and historic parks. We demonstrated the viability of our app by conducting a user study at Bodie, California (ca. 1859–1942), that assessed how this software promotes a sense of stewardship and appreciation for the archaeological heritage of this beloved California State Historic Park.

Recent years have seen the rapid adoption of digital site recording strategies following the proliferation of GPS-enabled mobile devices and data collection apps. Much of the emerging literature on digital—or paperless—archaeology, however, has focused on excavation contexts, with fewer discussions of mobile-GIS solutions on archaeological survey. This article discusses the design and implementation of a site survey workflow based on Esri's ArcGIS Collector mobile app in the context of Project ArAGATS's Kasakh Valley Archaeology Survey in northwestern Armenia. The Collector app provides a simple, map-centric user interface that allows surveyors with little-to-no GIS experience to record site locations, enter attribute data on customized digital forms, and attach photographs. With a network connection, the Collector app instantly uploads site information as GIS data to the project geodatabase and refreshes the data across surveyors’ mobile devices. Although the Collector app lacks certain GIS features and requires an institutional Esri license, we found that the native integration with our project GIS and broad access to visualization and recording tools in the app made in-field decision-making and interpretation more collaborative and inclusive across the survey team.

Hobby metal detecting is a controversial subject. Legal and policy approaches differ widely across national and regional contexts, and the attitudes of archaeologists and heritage professionals towards detectorists are often polarized and based on ethical or emotive arguments. We, the European Public Finds Recording Network (EPFRN), have implemented collaborative approaches towards detectorist communities in our respective contexts (Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, Flanders, and the Netherlands). Although our motivations are affected by our national circumstances, we base our work on an agreed set of goals, practices, and visions. This article presents the EPFRN's vision statement and provides insight into its underlying thoughts. We hope to create a debate on how to develop best practice approaches that acknowledge the inherent challenges of hobby metal detecting while realizing its potential.

With an ever-growing range of computational tools and applications now available for archaeological practice, the potential of digital archaeology is greater than ever before. Yet, archaeological curricula have not always followed suit, and many archaeologists are not up-to-date with the necessary digital skills. To fill this gap, online tutorials and learning platforms are being developed to familiarize archaeologists and students with the potential of digital media for archaeological research practices. Given the essential pedagogical role of these platforms, their quality is deserving of deeper interrogation. Here, I review three major platforms offering tutorials on digital archaeology: the Programming Historian, Project MERCURY-SIMREC, and the Open Digital Archaeology Textbook. These are evaluated and compared based on their goals, design (intuitiveness, ease of use), accessibility (use of jargon, required prerequisite knowledge, software requirements), scope (target audience, range of skills addressed, targeted level of improvement), and efficiency (whether or not they achieve their intended goals). The review concludes with a road map contextualizing the current state of available resources in light of the wider state of digital archaeology, and it considers pathways toward future development.

3D printing is a rapidly developing technology that has been championed as a revolutionary tool for the museums and heritage sector. Prints can provide innovative and engaging haptic experiences with objects in collections that cannot be handled, akin to craft replicas that have traditionally been employed. Large museums now regularly commission prints, yet evidence for the success of their deployment is largely anecdotal. This review considers how 3D prints have been utilized in museum contexts, with a focus on their successes and weaknesses as tools for public engagement.

MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) is one of the leading archaeological companies in the UK. It provides professional archaeological services and implements award-winning community engagement programs with a high-profile online presence. Its Facebook page is an important communication channel, serving the organization in raising public awareness, reaching the widest audiences, and engaging with the community. MOLA has developed a strategic approach to its archaeological communication on Facebook by ensuring regular updates of its research and by providing rich archaeological content aligned with media campaigns of the most notable archaeological excavations. This strategy helps the organization build a steady and engaged community of interest. The use of social networks for public engagement, the possibilities of rapid dissemination, and the challenges of ensuring sustainable online participation via social networks resonate with major concerns discussed by different researchers in the field. This review explores MOLA's Facebook page, seeking to showcase how the archaeological organization communicates through Facebook on a day-to-day basis and to reveal how Facebook users react to different kinds of archaeological content through measurable metrics.

As the role of digital methods in heritage and archaeology has increased in prominence, so has the question of capacity and community building. Who should receive training in digital methods? How should training take place? What concepts, platforms, technologies should be taught? These are relevant questions requiring careful planning and thoughtful implementation; yet beyond these questions, there is an issue of even greater importance: the planned development of communities of practice. The teaching of digital methods has a greater chance of success if it takes place in an ecosystem of scholars who are connected to one another through shared perspectives on those methods. This article presents and discusses the details of a model developed at Michigan State University that speaks to teaching digital archaeology and heritage methods, and to the development of communities of practice in which those methods are shared and relevant. The model is driven and informed by the activities of three projects: the National Endowment for the Humanities-funded Institute on Digital Archaeology Method & Practice, the Cultural Heritage Informatics Graduate Fellowship Program, and the Department of Anthropology Digital Cultural Heritage Fieldschool.

As digital practice in archaeology becomes pervasive and increasingly invisible, I argue that there is a deep creative potential in practising a cyborg archaeology. A cyborg archaeology draws from feminist posthumanism to transgress bounded constructions of past people as well as our current selves. By using embodied technologies to disturb archaeological interpretations, we can push the use of digital media in archaeology beyond traditional, skeuomorphic reproductions of previous methods to highlight ruptures in thought and practice. I develop this argument through investigating the avatars, machines, and monsters in current digital archaeological research. These concepts are productively liminal: avatars, machines, and monsters blur boundaries between humans and non-humans, the past and the present, and suggest productive approaches to future research.

Inclusive approaches to archaeology (including queer, feminist, black, indigenous, etc. perspectives) have increasingly intersected with coding, maker, and hacker cultures to develop a uniquely ‘Do-It-Yourself’ style of disruption and activism. Digital technology provides opportunities to challenge conventional representations of people past and present in creative ways, but at what cost? As a critical appraisal of transhumanism and the era of digital scholarship, this article outlines compelling applications in inclusive digital practice but also the pervasive structures of privilege, inequity, inaccessibility, and abuse that are facilitated by open, web-based heritage projects. In particular, it evaluates possible means of creating a balance between individual-focused translational storytelling and public profiles, and the personal and professional risks that accompany these approaches, with efforts to foster, support, and protect traditionally marginalized archaeologists and communities.