Integrating Digital Datasets into Public Engagement through ArcGIS StoryMaps

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeological research should not only be published in academic journals but also shared with the public and stakeholding communities. Ideally, the public should have opportunities to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms. In today’s digital environment, hypermedia and deep mapping are ways of increasing the accessibility of digital archaeological data. To engage the public in this way, scholars can rely on vastly improved data collection and curation technologies to aid them, including digital photography, geographic information systems (GIS), and three-dimensional models. These technologies, even when collected for analysis or documentation, can be valuable tools for educating and involving the public with the archaeological methods and how these methods help archaeologists to learn about the past. Ultimately, academic storytelling can benefit from making archaeological results and methods accessible and engaging for stakeholders and the general public. ArcGIS StoryMaps is an effective tool for integrating digital datasets into an accessible framework that is suitable for interactive public engagement. This paper describes the benefits of using ArcGIS StoryMaps for hypermedia and deep mapping-based public engagement using the story of copper production in Iron Age Faynan, Jordan, as a case study.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32205