Editing Computational archaeology (section)

== Training and research ==
Scientific progress in archaeology, as in any other discipline, requires building abstract, generalized and transferable knowledge about the processes that underlie past human actions and their manifestations. [[Quantification (science)|Quantification]] provides the ultimate known way of abstracting and extending our scientific abilities past the limits of [[Intuition (knowledge)|intuitive]] cognition. Quantitative approaches to archaeological information handling and inference constitute a critical body of scientific methods in archaeological research. They provide the tools, [[algebra]], [[statistics]] and computer [[algorithms]], to process information too voluminous or complex for purely [[cognitive]], informal [[inference]]. They also build a bridge between archaeology and numerous quantitative sciences such as [[geophysics]], [[geoinformation]] sciences and applied statistics. And they allow archaeological scientists to design and carry out research in a formal, transparent and comprehensible way.

Being an emerging field of research, AI science is currently a rather dispersed discipline in need of stronger, well-funded and institutionalized embedding, especially in academic teaching. Despite its evident progress and usefulness, today's quantitative archaeology is often inadequately represented in archaeological training and education. Part of this problem may be misconceptions about the seeming conflict between mathematics and [[humanistic]] archaeology.

Nevertheless, digital [[Excavation (archaeology)|excavation]] technology, modern [[heritage management]] and complex research issues require skilled students and researchers to develop new, efficient and reliable means of processing an ever-growing mass of untackled archaeological data and research problems. Thus, providing students of archaeology with a solid background in quantitative sciences such as mathematics, statistics and computer sciences seems today more important than ever.

Currently, universities based in the UK provide the largest share of study programmes for prospective quantitative archaeologists, with more institutes in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands developing a strong profile quickly. In Germany, the country's first lecturer's position in AI science ("Archäoinformatik") was established in 2005 at the University of Kiel. In April 2016 the first full professorship in Archaeoinformatics has been established at the University of Cologne (Institute of Archaeology).

The most important platform for students and researchers in quantitative archaeology and AI science is the international conference on [[Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology]] (CAA) which has been in existence for more than 30 years now and is held in a different city of Europe each year. Vienna's city archaeology unit also hosts an annual event that is quickly growing in international importance (see links at bottom).