Archaeologists vs. Computers: A Study Tests Who’s Best at Sifting the Past

Researchers reported a deep learning model sorted images of decorated pottery shards as accurately as (and occasionally more precisely than) four expert archaeologists did. A key piece of an archaeologist's job involves the tedious process of categorizing shards of pottery into subtypes. Ask archaeologists why they have put a fragment into a particular category and it's often difficult for them to say what exactly had led them to that conclusion. "It's kind of like looking at a photograph of Elvis Presley and looking at a photo of an impersonator," said Christian Downum, an anthropology professor at Northern Arizona University. "You know something is off with the impersonator, but it's hard to specify why it's not Elvis."