ArchaeologistsEngage reviewing... Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark!
Donal and Linn from AE have made the first ever episodes of the AE podcast. In this two-part series, we talk our way through this iconic movie, and try to find out what Indy actually got right about archaeology! This is a tongue-in-cheek discussion involving everything from serious ethical discussion to anecdotes about courgette-related shenanigans (please do not try the latter at home). Comments and feedback are appreciated!
UPDATES
Visit the Ivory Tower for a new article, 'On the Importance of Archives' by LinnMarie Krogsrud.
New revelations about the movement of stone shared on The House Archaeologist in The story of Mesolithic quarries on the western coast of South-Norway. by Astrid Nyland.
An inclusive approach to heritage education in Kolkata shared on the Ivory Tower. Heritage Walk for Hearing Impaired Children (UNESCO). by Tathatgata Neogi.
Visit the House Archaeologist to discover more about the Deliberate Destruction in the Bronze Age. by Matt Knight.
Challenging the perceptions of heritage ownership on the Ivory Tower. Introducing Confusion2.0: Who owns our heritage? by Pritha Mukherjee.
Resources
Ideas and Suggestions
The following are a few suggestions that you could use for inspiration for your coming engagement with the public. We are constantly looking for more ideas, and we are eager to hear what people have done with success. If you want to tell us your story or share an idea for engagement, please contact us at engage@archaeologists-engage.org
- Write an article for a popular science / history / archaeology magazine / local newspaper
- Guide an organised group on an active archaeological site
- Give a talk for an open public event / school / local education or youth group
- Organise a demonstration of an historic craft or skill
- Volunteer for a day at your local museum, or heritage centre/site
- Create a social media account where you can share your work
- Involve the local community in your archaeological site/project
How to Engage
Various experts and organisations are involved in archaeological public engagement. We have collected some of them below for more information and inspiration.
- The EXARC Journal provides free excerpts of their articles online and is a useful source of inspiration for the Open Air Museum, Bushcraft and experimental archaeology world. Take a look at it here: http://journal.exarc.net
- The SAA, the Society for American Archaeology, have developed a range of resources for public engagement here:
https://www.saa.org/education-outreach/public-outreach/outreach-skills-strategies
- Robert Connolly is directly engaged with public engagement in the museum environment. Read about his experiences here: https://rcnnolly.wordpress.com
- An interesting article about Public Archaeology in Britain, and an interesting read elsewhere, too, is provided by the University College London here: http://www.pia-journal.co.uk/articles/10.5334/pia.431/
- Sarah Colley has asked archaeology students at the University of Sydney about what matters to the wider public, and this was published in Australian Archaeology 2007 vol 65. Check it out here.
Start a local initiative
We are currenlty developing information packs to support groups or individuals starting a local initiative. If you want to start a local initiative under the ArchaeologistsEngage banner, please contact us at engage@archaeologists-engage.org
Links
We have assembled links that we consider useful for our project of engaging with the public. If you have a suggestion that you think we should put on this page, please provide us with the link by emailing us at engage@archaeologists-engage.org.
- EXARC: The organisation for Open Air Museums and Experimental Archaeologists in Europe: http://exarc.net
- The Engaging Researcher (pdf) is a booklet produced by Vitae that is a useful collection of various approaches to and considerations for engaging with the public: http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/sites/default/files/publication/the-engaging-researcher-vitae-2010.pdf
- Archaeodeath: Archaeology, Mortality and Material Culture (blog) by Prof. Howard Williams: https://howardwilliamsblog.wordpress.com/
Articles
The ArchaeologistsEngage project publishes two article streams; The House Archaeologist and The Ivory Tower. These promote the direct communication of archaeological and heritage activities and research amongst those involved in these field as well as to the general public.
The House Archaeologist
This page provides a platform to support communication between archaeologists and the wider public audience. The format is a series of articles that can be searched by category of content. On the House Archaeologist, you will find articles from all over the world about archaeological research results, information about interesting sites, aspects of archaeology and heritage, as well as the experiences of professionals working in these areas. The content aims to be as current as possible, to give the audience an insight into 'behind the scenes' archaeology and to 'connect' with people from the past. All articles on the House Archaeologist are written by archaeologists or heritage professionals.
The Ivory Tower
This page addresses topics that concern the dynamics between audience and professional. It was created to inform and inspire archaeologists to undertake public engagement in their professional capacity. The Ivory Tower includes articles from both within and outside of the profession, to provide a multifaceted view of community engagement.
Contribute an Article
We encourage discussion about the dynamics between archaeology and the public. Please consider contributing an article to one of our pages if you would like to share your own experience as a professional or a member of the general public. The House Archaeologist is written exclusively by archaeologists, but The Ivory Tower is open to anyone who can provide motivational insights to archaeologists and our practice. The comment fields are open to everyone, but are moderated prior to publishing.
Contact us at engage@archaeologists-engage.org with a short synopsis of what you would like to contribute and a sentence about who you are and where you are from.
How will you be Engaging?!
Why not try your hand at a form of virtual engagement? Below are some examples of recent engagement formats shared by a couple of our Archaeologists. These are really informative and also a bit of fun!
Back Garden Archaeology Test Pit Dig 2020 with Donal Lucey
During the summer three archaeologists in need of an adventure decide to dig an archaeological test pit excavation in their back garden to see what archaeology they could find! Let us know what you enjoy about the video, and archaeological topics you would like to see videos about next! Twitter @Donal_Lucey or @ArchsEngage
Click this link or the image below to watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfbFQq5YNgU&feature=youtu.be
15 Questions with an Archaeologist
Our very own Emily Wapshott was interviewed by the Southeast Archaeological Center (SEAC, part of the USA National Park Service) for their interesting and thought-provoking series. Click this link or the image below to watch the video
Events
A Heritage Walk through 1780s European Calcutta with an Archaeologist!
ArchaeologistsEngage proudly hosted our first event in Kolkata, India, on the weekend of 7th and 8th of November, 2015..
The event took the form of cultural walks in a colonial heritage landscape, and was led by archaeologists Tathagata Neogi and Chelsea McGill.
Tathagata and Chelsea provided an opportunity for members of the public to explore the streets and hear stories of a fledgling European Calcutta between 1757 and 1807- a period when Calcutta emerged as the centre of British administration in Asia.
They retraced the steps of Lt. Col. Markwood, who drew the first detailed map of the English East India Company's settlement in Calcutta in 1784. Several streets, buildings and other features of the landscape that Markwood's map depict still survive. The Kolkata heritage walk, enabled by SeekSherpa, explored the environment, people and events of this early period in Calcutta’s history.
Great Torrington - Round the Square, Music and Art Festival 16-18th June 2017
Emily Wapshott gave a public presentation entitled 'The Town below Your Feet: Engaging with the archaeology of Torrington' on the morning of 17th June, followed by a guided walk around Torrington (Torrington in Five Buildings) to explore the built heritage of this north Devon town.
Heritage Walk Calcuttain collaboration with Made in Bengaland ArchaeologistsEngagehosted a GoUNESCOevent. Make Heritage Fun: A Heritage Walk for Hearing-Impaired Children took place on 27th March 2017. Read about the event here.
About Us
ArchaeologistsEngage developed from a small research collaboration that formed in Exeter, UK. The founders of ArchaeologistsEngage are three archaeologists from Australia, UK, and Norway, who are specialists in different fields of archaeology. Our organisation is supported by EXARC and South West Archaeology Ltd.
To contact us, find our contact form here or email us at engage@archaeologists-engage.org. You can also follow us on Instagram, facebook or twitter.
The Project
We are an independent non-profit group of archaeologists who came together to enable engagement between professionals and the public.
ArchaeologistsEngage is a registered voluntary organisation in the Norwegian Brønnøysund Register.
The collaboration developed from three professionals talking about their involvement in Archaeology. This discussion evolved into a group presentation at the 2015 conference of the European Association of Archaeologists. We put forward a challenging synopsis of how archaeological information is communicated through the international movie industry. Our presentation was received with lots of interest and led to quite a passionate general discussion, not only within the conference session, but afterwards as well, as word spread amongst the delegates.
These discussions identified what we consider to be a disconnect between how archaeologists share findings from their work, and how these findings are perceived by the wider audience. Building on this we developed our project, aiming to reduce this distance between the 'Ivory Tower' and the 'Outside World'.
With this project we encourage archaeologists and heritage professionals to acknowledge our professional responsibility to address the imbalance between our knowledge and the information that reaches the public.
International Committee
Belinda Tibbetts .
Founding Member
Belinda is an Australian osteoarchaeologist with a background in biological sciences, classical history, and bioarchaeology (human osteology). She is experienced in academic education, archaeological fieldwork, and skeletal analysis. Her doctoral research investigated the skeletal palaeopathology of very young individuals and focused on the links between maternal health and fetal development, and the response of past communities to maternal care and perinatal death. Belinda is actively involved in sharing her work with the wider public in various ways including presentations, onsite tours, hands-on experiences, and education workshops.
Belinda is our liaison for academic matters.
Emily Wapshott .
Founding Member
Emily is a British commercial archaeologist and historic buildings specialist, with over a decade of field experience. Emily began digging in her parents' garden as a small child, volunteering on her first large-scale site at eight years old. Emily is passionate about archaeology and about sharing that passion for her discipline with others. In her work as a field archaeologist Emily has a close relationship with the public and is involved with a number of education outreach programs. As an independent researcher, Emily is also involved in the fields of gender archaeology, early medieval British and Scandinavian archaeology and communication, and public engagement.
Emily is our liaison for professional and field archaeologists.
Tine Schenck .
Founding Member
Tine is a Norwegian experimental archaeologist and a sociologist of law. Her main research interest is the nature of archaeological practice, and the sociopolitical, ethical and methodological aspects that follow. Tine's doctorate investigated the deconstruction of Experimental Archaeology at the University of Exeter. In addition, she has also been involved with sociological study of the Norwegian archaeological labour force. Tine has experience from field archaeology as well as a variety of archaeological experimentation. She has general experience from public outreach work and has written for popular media.
Linn Marie Krogsrud
Linn Marie is a Norwegian archaeologist with a degree in project management. She did her MA research on material culture and cultural identity in the Viking age. She is currently working as a heritage advisor for Buskerud county municipality, where she works with built heritage and increasing the knowledge of traditional building methods and materials among house owners and craftspeople. She is also a volunteer for The National Trust of Norway, providing guided tours and activism to protect historic buildings.
Donal Lucey
Donal is an Irish archaeologist with a background in commercial fieldwork in the UK and Ireland. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA). His particular areas of interest are the transition from the Late Roman Empire to the Early Medieval period in Britain and the development of early Christianity in North-West Europe. He is currently a Principal Heritage Consultant at Arcadis and provides cultural heritage expertise to a wide range of major development projects including road schemes and new towns. He volunteers with the Bristol and Avon Archaeological Society and is Excavation Co-Director for Project Nivica Archaeology in Albania. Donal is passionate about promoting public engagement with archaeology and increasing the accessibility and diversity of archaeology as a profession.
Contact
If you would like to get in touch, please email us at engage@archaeologists-engage.org
Follow Us
Content Copyright
All images by ArchaeologistsEngage unless otherwise noted.
The user acknowledges that all content available from this site is protected by a Creative Commons license (BY-NC) (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International). The information is a combination of images and content provided with the owner’s permission and sources available in the public domain. All use of images and intellectual property available on this site must be attributed to the individual author where known, or to ArchaeologistsEngage in all other instances. If you have any queries about republishing content, please contact us.
Archaeologists-Engage is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.