Clues, algorithms and hunter-gatherers

This article focuses on interdisciplinary experiments conducted at the intersection of archaeological sciences and computer sciences, within the framework of a recently finalised research project. From a perspective combining the sociology of science and infrastructure studies, we seek to understand the modalities of hybridisation and confrontation between these two quite distinct epistemic traditions, and the way in which two technologies in particular are facilitating reasoning in prehistoric archaeology: artificial intelligence and virtual reality. We rely on the analysis of archival documents, filmed ethnographic observations, and semi-structured interviews to trace the history of the project and its successive reconfigurations. We thus analyse the conditions supporting the importation of computational devices into the archaeological sciences, showing that this involves a delicate adjustment of the distance between archaeologists and computers.