Digital technologies are developing in a rapid pace and the usage of 3D is now in its experimenting phase. Many projects have been working with 3D to see how it can be used in a productive way. The use of 3D and GIS together has started to set a pattern to what 3D models are good for more than documentation in high accuracy. This essay is discussing what this relationship is being used for and if it should be place as a standard procedure in archaeological field practice. The essay is also discussing the place for 3D and digital archeology in the two biggest paradigms in archaeology. The result of this essay is showing a potentially effectiveness of the usage of 3D in excavation purposes and that 3D-GIS can make even more potential data of the models, both in field and in post-processing work. The discussion of the place for 3D models in archaeological theory is showing that digital archeology can fill the gap between processual and post-processual archaeology, therefor are a part of all paradigms or even be a part of a new paradigm, which can create a new way of interpret archaeology.

In this thesis I examine current and future uses of Big Data in archaeology. New technologies have enabled a range of data capture, data storage, and analyses. Digitization in our society has brought new ways of working for archaeologists and the increased amount of data affects how we can understand the world. Big Data reshapes the research process and creates new risks and opportunities for digital archaeology. Several sources have been examined in order to understand what this looks like in archaeology, such as articles published in the journal Internet Archaeology, a questionnaire answered by archaeologists and digital humanists, interviews by two representatives of archaeology, one representative of digital humanities and a chatbot.  The archaeological material has become more accessible. Big Data contributes to data-driven science which enforces a paradigm shift. As data is created faster in various ways and to a voluminous extent archaeologists are forced to work with issues related to the management and storage of data. Digital humanists and archaeologists emphasize that Big Data brings efficient working methods and analyses that can contribute with new questions and reliable knowledge. This can increase the relevance of humanities subjects in the research community. That being said, the nature of Big Data often includes quantitative structured data and its result can be characterized as objective and trustworthy. Perceptions of data as bias-free and that Big Data affects theory to become obsolete may jeopardize the use of source criticism. There is a lack of standardization in how to measure and store data in archaeology which contributes to decontextualization of data. I urge that archaeologists should reflect on how cutting edge data-modeling and AI-modeling can assist in the research process as well as how ethical aspects of data should be considered in order not to risk interpretations overlooking people, places and practices.

This research concerns the digitalisation of archaeology, with a focus on Swedish contract archaeology. The aim is to understand how the archaeological discipline relates to the change that digitalisation brings and human involvement in these processes. The thesis is a study of its impact on processes connected to archaeological knowledge production and communication. The work problematises how digital data might be understood within these contexts but also illustrates where the potential of the digitalisation lies and how archaeology can make use of it. The theoretical approach re-actualises the concept of reflexivity in a digital context, combining it with various communication theories aiming to challenge the archaeological workflow and connect it more closely to present-day society. The digitalisation of archaeology can be seen across the whole discipline withan emphasis on academia. This digital development has greater opportunities in larger research projects which have sufficient funding than in contract archaeology. In those projects leading the digital development, the reflexive approach has been re-discovered and the digital enabled for new processes of knowledge production to take place. In case studies of Swedish contract archaeology several observations are made where it becomes clear that the digitalisation already shows positive effects at a government level, in organisations and projects within the sector. But there are also issues regarding digital infrastructure, knowledge production, archiving, accessibility and transparency. The biggest challenge is not technical but in attitudes towards digitalisation. The research concludes that digital communication based on archaeological source material can be something more than mediation of results. With digital interactive storytelling there are ways to create emotional virtual connections with the user, relating to the present and the surrounding society. By interlinking the processes of interpretation and communication an archaeological knowledge production might become an archaeological knowledge development. / Den här forskningen har studerat digitaliseringen av arkeologin med fokus på svensk uppdragsarkeologi. Målet har varit att öka förståelsen kring hur disciplinen förhåller sig till de förändringar som digitaliseringens innebär och människans roll i dessa processer. Avhandlingen är en studie av digitaliseringens betydelse för de arkeologiska processer som berör kunskapsproduktion och kommunikation. Arbetet problematiserar förståelsen av digitala data inom dessa kontexter men visar också på digitaliseringenspotential och hur arkeologin kan dra nytta av den. Forskningen aktualiserar på nytt det teoretiska angreppssättet reflexivitet i ett digitalt sammanhang och kombinerar detta med kommunikationsteorier i syfte att utmana det arkeologiska arbetsflödet och knyta det närmare dagens samhälle. Resultatet av denna forskning visar på att digital kommunikation baserad på arkeologiskt källmaterial kan vara något mer än förmedling av resultat. Med interaktivt historieberättande finns vägar att skapa emotionella virtuella kopplingar mellan användare och arkeologi som relaterar till nuet och detomgivande samhället. Genom att länka ihop den arkeologiska tolkningsprocessen med kommunikation, skapas möjligheten för kunskapsproduktion att bli kunskapsutveckling.