A key development in archaeology is the increasing agency of the digital tools brought to bear on archaeological practice. Roles and tasks that were previously thought to be uncomputable are beginning to be digitalized, and the presumption that computerization is best suited to well-defined and restricted tasks is starting to break down. Many of these digital devices seek to reduce routinized and repetitive work in the office environment and in the field. Others incorporate data-driven methods to represent, store, and manipulate information in order to undertake tasks previously thought to be incapable of being automated. Still others substitute the human component in environments which would be otherwise be inaccessible or dangerous. Whichever applies, separately or in combination, such technologies are typically seen as black-boxing practice with often little or no human intervention beyond the allocation of their inputs and subsequent incorporation of their outputs in analyses. This paper addresses the implications of this shift to algorithmic automated practices for archaeology and asks whether there are limits to algorithmic agency within archaeology. In doing so, it highlights several challenges related to the relationship between archaeologists and their digital devices.

中文翻译：

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考古实践中的算法代理和自治

考古学的一个关键发展是越来越多的数字工具对考古实践产生影响。以前被认为不可计算的角色和任务开始被数字化，计算机化最适合明确定义和受限任务的假设开始瓦解。许多这些数字设备试图减少办公室环境和现场的常规和重复工作。其他人则采用数据驱动的方法来表示、存储和操作信息，以执行以前认为无法自动化的任务。还有一些替代了人类无法进入或危险的环境。无论哪种适用，单独或组合，此类技术通常被视为黑箱操作，除了分配其输入并随后将其输出纳入分析之外，通常很少或根本没有人为干预。本文探讨了这种转向算法自动化实践对考古学的影响，并询问考古学中算法机构是否存在限制。在此过程中，它强调了与考古学家与其数字设备之间的关系相关的几个挑战。