Democracy, Data and Archaeological Knowledge

In a recent article (Huggett 1993), I drew attention to what seemed to be an increasingly common phenomenon in papers discussing the application of computers in a variety of archaeological contexts: the concept of the démocratisation of knowledge. This phrase has rapidly assumed the status of a buzzword over the last couple of years but it has rarely been questioned in terms of its implications for archaeology and archaeologists. In that sense then, I would suggest that the démocratisation of archaeological knowledge using information technology is a classic instance of us, as archaeologists, hurtling down a road without any real idea of why we're doing it, or whether indeed it is a good idea in the first place. This paper addresses such issues as these, looking in particular at what is apparently meant by democratising knowledge and what it might mean for archaeology.