| Sumario: | The last 30 years have seen significant investments in the development of digital infrastructures to support archaeological practice. From field recording systems to national data archives, these have come to play an increasingly dominant role in the collection, management and access to data used in the creation of new archaeological knowledge. While archaeologists have paid a lot of attention to the technical creation of these infrastructures, much less is said about their wider political, cultural and social aspects. Despite this, more and more countries are building digital infrastructures to support cultural heritage management, the curation of archaeological data and to provide access for data reuse. A lack of critical reflection surrounding these infrastructures opens archaeologists, heritage organisations and their wider user communities to unforeseen outcomes, hidden socio-political and technical biases, and the promotion of conventions and processes which ultimately carry consequences for knowledge practice. The way that infrastructures become embedded in practice means that a critical understanding of their implementation and application – the opportunities they offer, the constraints they impose, and the perspectives they adopt – needs to become part of a wider debate surrounding their informed use.
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