Digital Technologies and Public Archaeology

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Digital Technologies and Public Archaeology," at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Digital technologies offer powerful methods for capturing the public’s imagination. As early adopters, historical archaeologists have a unique perspective on how to use technology to connect the public with the past, and that past with the present. This session explores established and emerging uses of digital technologies by historical archaeologists as relates to public archaeology. We understand that public archaeology is a wide term and encompasses or intersects approaches variously labeled applied, engaged, collaborative, and so forth. Potential topics include the use of mapping technologies to communicate archaeology, how 3D and virtual technologies are producing an interactive past, and how democratizing technologies allows members of the public to directly engage in/with historical archaeology. This is an invited session sponsored by the SHA Technology Committee with submissions from students, recent graduates, professionals, and academics to support our mission to make technologies more accessible to SHA members.