Day of Archaeology

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The Day of Archaeology is an annual, 24-hour, international online event in which archaeologists and those in related fields write blog posts about their work. It was inspired by the Day of Digital Humanities [1] and, similarly, allows practitioners of many kinds, to document their work informally and 'provide a window into the daily lives of archaeologists from all over the world'. [2] Though it encourages diversity rather than thematic posts, the project has some similarities to Blog Action Day.

Contents

Overview

The first event took place on 27 July 2011. The event is organised by a voluntary committee of archaeologists based in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Spain. [1] The main site runs a customised WordPress content management system and the event is promoted through Twitter and Facebook pages (see External links).

The project is supported by several British archaeological and academic organisations: server space is provided on the Portable Antiquities Scheme servers [3] and long-term digital preservation is provided by the Archaeology Data Service. L-P Archaeology and the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities provide technical and management advice. [1] In 2011 and 2013 the event was timed to coincide with the Festival of British Archaeology. [4]

The project covers any form of work that could be considered archaeology and encourages contributions from any level of professionalism. [2]

External coverage

Several archaeologists have blogged about the project in official [5] and personal [6] capacities and the project committee wrote posts on various other sites, [3] [7] notably the Society for Historical Archaeology [8] and the British Museum. [9]

After the 2011 event a preliminary data mining analysis was conducted. [10] Similarly, after the 2014 event a topic modelling and keyword analysis was published. [11]

The Day of Archaeology project was nominated for a British Archaeology Award in July 2011 in the 'Best Representation of Archaeology in the Media' category and was highly commended. [12]

Event summaries

YearDateNumber of participantsNumber of countriesNumber of posts
201326 July1067Not known329
201229 Juneover 300Not known343
201127 Julyover 400Not known429
201411 July
201524 July

Data sources: [2] [7] [13]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Day of Archaeology: Project Background". 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  2. 1 2 3 "Day of Archaeology: About the Project". 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  3. 1 2 Pett, Daniel (2011-04-28). "Portable Antiquities Scheme: Day of Archaeology 2011". Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  4. ↑ "Festival Listing: Day of Archaeology". Council for British Archaeology. July 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
  5. ↑ "RCAHMS: Day of Archaeology 2012" . Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  6. ↑ "Netzschichten: Day of Archaeology". 2011-07-28. Archived from the original on 2013-10-28. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  7. 1 2 Richardson, Lorna (2012-05-30). "UCL Centre for Digital Humanities: Day of Archaeology 2012" . Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  8. ↑ "Society for Historical Archaeology: The Day of Archaeology 2012". 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  9. ↑ Pett, Daniel (2011-07-27). "A day in the life of a lot of archaeologists". Archived from the original on 2012-02-02. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  10. ↑ Graham, Shawn (2012-07-09). "Electric Archaeology: Mining a Day of Archaeology" . Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  11. ↑ Marwick, Ben (2014-05-29). "A Distant Reading of the Day of Archaeology". GitHub . Retrieved 2018-02-04.
  12. ↑ "British Archaeology Awards 2012". 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
  13. ↑ The Day of Archaeology Team (1 August 2013). "Wrapping Up the Day of Archaeology 2013" . Retrieved 30 October 2013.
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