Mix, Mold, Fire! Multimedia Educational Outreach inspired by Bronze Age Archaeology

Summary

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

While fascination with archaeology is commonplace among children, family media content often focuses on problematic narratives of treasure hunting. This presents a need for archaeologists to reach out to young audiences with a more balanced narrative - one that conveys the value of heritage resources and counteracts the damaging perception of archaeologists as looters. In this paper, we discuss preschool, 4th grade and 6th grade versions of a multimedia educational outreach lesson that incorporates 2D comic art, 3D representations of heritage objects, and experimental archaeology. All lessons begin with an introduction to the comic “Mix, Mold, Fire!” that features the misadventures of Abby, a young apprentice potter in the Early Bronze Age village of Seyitömer Höyük in Anatolia, whose activities are archaeologically attested. Multimedia lessons expand on this story: pottery-making activities are based on Abby’s methods, and students interact with 3D scans and 3D prints of heritage objects then use these interactions as inspiration for creating their own archaeologically-inspired comic stories. These lessons introduce young audiences to fundamentals of archaeology. They learn about hands-on engagement with the archaeological record “at the trowel’s edge” and explore the process of building narratives about the past from analysis of material culture remains.

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): 33592