AI Democratizes Archaeology

Private grants are funding AI and remote‑sensing platforms that let non‑specialists and small teams detect and document buried sites using lidar, drones, radar, ancient‑DNA pipelines, and ML tools. This lowers cost and barriers to discovery but also shifts control over cultural heritage from traditional institutions to distributed funders and citizen networks. — This trend alters who discovers and interprets the past, raising questions about heritage stewardship, repatriation, looting risk, and the influence of private funders on research priorities.