Special Interest Group on Scientific Scripting Languages in Archaeology

This CAA International Special Interest Group (SIG) focusses on the application of Scripting Languages in archaeological research. To learn more about the purpose and goals of this SIG take a look at our Statement of purpose.

If computational archaeology is new to you, you can explore our fictional map, including a list of learning materials covering various aspects of the different domains:

If you are already working in the field of quantitative archaeology, if you are using scripting languages as part of your analysis and daily work, and if you would like to contribute and take part in the decision making of this group, please feel free and encouraged to become a member.

Background

At the CAA 2018 Tübingen we had a session on R as archaeological tool. Within this session all papers showed a very high standard of utilisation of R for archaeological questions, and a huge variety of different approaches. Lively discussions on teaching R to students and colleagues followed, and the question arose how we can make our preferred analytical framework more open and accessible to other interested parties.

From these events and discussions emerged a proposal to form a Special Interest Group at CAA International to have a permanent platform to exchange and discuss ideas, and to develop the practical benefits of R for archaeological applications. Following further discussion with colleagues it became clear that it would be a good idea to include other scripting languages, eg. python, into this SIG.