This review considers two books outlining the results of a major big-data project in England that sought to make sense of the growing amount of information from developer-funded archaeology, the reporting of finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and from a wide range of other databases. The result is fascinating and thought-provoking discussions of how we could interpret regional variation in archaeological data, although methodological issues present an interesting case study of the challenges that big-data projects face. The publication strategy—of two separate volumes—also raises questions about how we should disseminate the results of large-scale research programmes.

这篇评论考虑了两本书，概述了英格兰一个主要大数据项目的结果，该项目试图理解来自开发商资助的考古学、向便携式古物计划的发现报告以及来自广泛的范围内的越来越多的信息。其他数据库。结果是关于我们如何解释考古数据的区域差异的引人入胜且发人深省的讨论，尽管方法论问题为大数据项目面临的挑战提供了一个有趣的案例研究。两卷独立的出版策略也提出了我们应该如何传播大规模研究计划的结果的问题。