Theory in Archaeology, Theory in Computing 1: Cross-Fertilisation in CAA and TAG Conferences Between Archaeological Theory and Computer Applications

This article explores the theory content of the Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) International conferences. The article compares this content to the themes presented in computing sessions in the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conferences. The article highlights the importance of the DigiTAG sessions in 2016, but also points out the existence of precedents.

At the beginning, the processual paradigm meant that computer applications were part of the mainstream of the discipline and so the same theoretical underpinnings were shared between computer archaeology and theoretical archaeology. This changed with post-processual archaeology and there was a surge of theoretical soul-searching within the computing community in the mid-1990s. Relatively speaking, computing has been discussed more in the TAG conferences than theory has been considered in the CAA conferences and with the ‘digital turn’ this content is also present in more generally themed TAG sessions.