ABSTRACT
The decades since the 1960s have seen extensive and varied changes within archaeology and its relationships with other disciplines. One of the most profound developments has been the explicit discussion of theory and the acceptance of the central role of theory within archaeological practice. The theoretical framework of the discipline has been almost continuously reassessed and reworked, initially with the challenge to the traditional culture-historical approach by processual archaeology and, in turn, by the rise of post-processualism. Encompassing these changes, and influencing them in a myriad of complex ways, have been the wider social and intellectual discussions loosely based around understandings of modernism and postmodernism. Embedded within this discourse, and of particular interest to this background chapter, are the information and communications revolution and the associated rise of digital technologies. Here, rather than providing a descriptive historical account of the development of archaeological computing as an insular phenomenon, I think it is of more interest to position these disciplinary developments within the ebb and flow of the wider concerns and debates. The main themes to emerge are the potential of computers as active agents for thought rather than as just passive tools, and the symbiotic relationship between the development of digital technologies and archaeological theory, both of which incorporate a trend towards the concept of increasing contextualism, complexity and data-rich environments.
