About
My research interests lie at the intersection of Archaeology and Computer Science, with a specific passion for creating useful tools for other archaeologists to further their research. In my PhD and postdoc, I used text mining techniques and machine learning to unlock the information hidden in archaeological field reports. This resulted in an online tool (called AGNES) allowing researchers to search through this enormous amount of grey literature in a detailed and fine grained matter.
My current role is at the TDCC-SSH, where I work as an Interoperability Project Lead. Here, I am setting up and running multiple projects where we aim to increase the interoperability of research data in the Social Sciences and Humanities.
TARA - an LLM for Dutch Archaeology
Through my company, I am working with BAAC and Archol to create a language model for Dutch archaeology. This model will be called TARA (Taalmodel voor Archeologische Rapport Analyse), and development will start in September 2026. For more information, please see tara-llm.nl.
Publications
Maineri, A. M. et al. (2026). Action Plan Towards FAIR Implementation in the Dutch Social Sciences and Humanities. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19128134
Van den Dikkenberg, L., & Brandsen, A. (2025). Using Text Mining to Search for Neolithic Vlaardingen Culture Sites in the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt Delta. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 8(1). DOI: 10.5334/jcaa.205
Brandsen, A. (2024). Archaeology specific BERT models for English, German, and Dutch. Amsterdam. In Proceedings of the CAA2023 Conference. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10610882
Tenzer, M., Pistilli, G., Brandsen, A., & Shenfield, A. (2024). Debating AI in Archaeology: applications, implications, and ethical considerations. Internet Archaeology, (67). DOI: 10.11141/ia.67.8
Brandsen, A. (2023). Information extraction and machine learning for archaeological texts. In Discourse and Argumentation in Archaeology: Conceptual and Computational Approaches (pp. 229-261). Cham: Springer International Publishing. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-37156-1_11
Brandsen, A. (2022). Digging in documents: using text mining to access the hidden knowledge in Dutch archaeological excavation reports. PhD Dissertation, Leiden University. DOI: hdl.handle.net/1887/3274287
Brandsen, A., Verberne, S., Lambers, K., & Wansleeben, M. (2021). Can BERT Dig It? - Named Entity Recognition for Information Retrieval in the Archaeology Domain. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. DOI: 10.1145/3497842
Brandsen, A., & Lippok, F. (2021). A burning question - Using an intelligent grey literature search engine to change our views on early medieval burial practices in the Netherlands. Journal of Archaeological Science, 133. DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2021.105456
Brandsen, A., Verberne, S., Wansleeben, M., & Lambers, K. (2020). Creating a Dataset for Named Entity Recognition in the Archaeology Domain. Proceedings of The 12th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, 4573-4577. Link: aclweb.org/anthology/2020.lrec-1.562.pdf
Brandsen, A., Lambers, K., Verberne, S., & Wansleeben, M. (2019). User Requirement Solicitation for an Information Retrieval System Applied to Dutch Grey Literature in the Archaeology Domain. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology, 2(1), 21-30. DOI: 10.5334/jcaa.33
Paijmans, H., & Brandsen, A. (2010). Searching in archaeological texts: Problems and solutions using an artificial intelligence approach. PalArch's Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, 7(2), 1-6.
Paijmans, H., & Brandsen, A. (2009). What is in a Name: Recognizing Monument Names from Free-Text Monument Descriptions. In M. G. J. van Erp, J. H. Stehouwer, & M. van Zaanen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th Annual Belgian-Dutch Conference on Machine Learning (Benelearn) (pp. 2-6).
Datasets
Brandsen, A. (2021). Archaeological entities and timespans extracted from all archaeology documents available in DANS EASY in 2017. DANS. DOI: 10.17026/dans-zcs-7b72
Brandsen, A. (2020). alexbrandsen/archaeo-document-classification-dataset: Second version. DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.4115747
Brandsen, A. (2019). alexbrandsen/dutch-archaeo-NER-dataset: First version. Zenodo Repository. DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.3544544
Code
Most code can be found on my GitHub, but here are some highlights:
Verschoof-van der Vaart, W., & Brandsen, A. (2020). Boundingbox Localizer Tool (BLT) - Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg version. Zenodo Repository. DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.3888053
Brandsen, A. (2019). alexbrandsen/joint-disease-tool: A HTML/JS based tool that interactively guides the user through a number of questions, ending in a specific pathology diagnosis. GitHub Repository.
Brandsen, A. (2018). alexbrandsen/archaeo-CRF: Version 0.1 of Archaeo CRF. Zenodo Repository. DOI: 10.5281/ZENODO.1238861
