Today, October 8th 2026, we celebrate International RSE Day!

But… what does “RSE” mean? RSE stands for “Research Software Engineers”, and it’s a broad term for all the people who, as part of their work, develop software that is dedicated to research. This may also include students, early career researchers, or established professionals who contribute to the maintenance of databases and e-infrastructure. The proliferation of agent-based modelling, network analysis, Bayesian statistics, 3D modelling, open databases, and so many other digital research tools and resources are accessible to archaeologists thanks to the development of custom-made software. Archaeology is more and more influenced by computational methods; today we recognize the importance of RSE in the field!

The CAA special interest group in scientific scripting languages in archaeology has been at the forefront for the development of good practices in programming for archaeologists, and has been vocal about the importance of research software engineering. Among our activities, we initiated a “maintainathon” last January, where we encouraged better practices for software documentation, testing, and curation, and compiled a list of supporting resources to help other practitioners along the way. We aim to repeat the experience this coming January!

We also hold regular meetings during the first Friday of each month to keep each other abreast of recent developments in this space. These meetings also sometimes feature guest speakers to who share their recent work (check our shared calendar for specifics dates and times).

Unsure of how important RSE work has been to the field of archaeology? We collected some great papers that you could peruse over your next coffee break!

• The software rcarbon enables the calibration and analysis of radiocarbon dates in R. It stands out in its usage because it is completely open source and free!
  • Crema ER and Bevan A, ‘INFERENCE FROM LARGE SETS OF RADIOCARBON DATES: SOFTWARE AND METHODS’, Radiocarbon, 63 (2021), 23–39 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2020.95
• XRONOS is the Open Access Database for absolute chronological archaeological information, developed by our very own Joe Roe and Martin Hinz. It combines all available chronological data into one single database!
  • Roe JA, and Hinz M “XRONOS: An open repository and curation platform for chronometric data.” CAA 2022. 2022. https://xronos.ch
• Here is an article discussing collaborative practices among practicioners of research software in archaeology:
  • Batist Z and Roe J “Open Archaeology, Open Source? Collaborative practices in an emerging community of archaeological software engineers”, Internet Archaeology 67. (2024) https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.67.13
• And finally, some recommendations for reviewing archaeological software:
  • Homburg T, Klammt A, Hubert M, Schmid C, Schmidt SC, Thiery F, and Trognitz M (2020), Archäologische Informationen, Bd.43. https://doi.org/10.11588/ai.2020.1.81423

Interested in more? The Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology publishes papers using software to understand the past. Give a look! And if you are interested in connecting with other RSE around you, check out the various national and international RSE associations: https://society-rse.org/international-rse-organisations/