Data Archaeology is the process of retrieving information from
data storage formats that are no longer used. A
data archaeologist would be an expert in this field and that person would have to have great expertise and experience with these older
media, especially
magnetic and early
optical storage devices.
Data Archaeology is usually used when large amounts of data from a broad time span need to be retrieved for analysis. Because of this time span, the data will often be stored on older systems and formats. Examples of the use of data archaeology could occur in many different scenarios where large amounts of older data may be needed, especially weather analysis, oceanic activity and geographic studies.
The term is closely related to data mining