From Invention to Methodology: the overlooked "DIY" in everyday archaeology

Summary

Archaeology has always been "DIY". It has borrowed nearly all of its physical tools and many of its intellectual instruments as well. In this still new, 21st century realm of digital archaeology our implements look different, but their basic implementation does not. From the shovel to the computer, from the trowel to the database, from the paintbrush to the paint program, archaeology has had to teach itself how to adapt an object - physical or digital - to the needs of the discipline. Using the experience of one deeply digitally invested research project, the Pompeii Quadriporticus Project, this paper explores this overlooked world of DIY in archaeology. At issue are the risks and rewards enmeshed in the many strategies available to any project starting today: the investment in building your own infrastructure, the compromises of cobbling together resources ready-made for other purposes, and the costs in personnel and training. Yet these issues only address one part of ubiquitous DIY in archaeology, the design and creation of a conceptual, if sometime tested, framework. Fieldwork has always been where concept and reality collide, and it offers (requires) yet another moment of DYI adaptation.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• "DIY Digitech" in Archaeological Fieldwork: Innovative Adaptations of Low(er)-Budget Digital Technologies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage