Sunday, March 30, 2008

Sharing Archaeology On The Web

One of the events that I attended at the SAA conference this week was a roundtable luncheon on sharing archaeology on the web. Our small group discussed what we were each doing, and planning to do, to help bring our projects to the public. Our moderator was Dr. Steve Black, editor of the Texas Beyond History website. One of the topics that we spent a lot of time discussing was the use of video on websites, something the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project has yet to do. There is a lot of archaeology video on the web, one example being the Archaeology Channel website, so we want to be sure we have something new to contribute before we begin that process. I think developing the wiki is more important right now but we may take video of the Archeological Society of Maryland Field Session at Port Tobacco, this June, as a first step in bringing another perspective of Port Tobacco to you.

-April

3 comments:

Dancing Willow said...

I read an article in the "Smithsonian" about barcoding. They were talking about establishing a system for identifying the different species of mosquitoes and which types carry malaria. With more elaboration they spoke about (typecoding) or barcoding other species of life - insect and plant. The plan is that in years to come, kids will be able to carry a barcoding machine on field trips where they may scan and learn indepth detail. With this story, I talked to Scott about the possibilities of barcoding in archaeological terms and possibilities of bone, shard, etc., identification. Do you know or have you heard of this process and is it a possibility?

Jim said...

I have been thinking about bar coding artifacts for years. Imagine a barcode on a microdot, affixed to each artifact, that allows us to quickly enter and access information on each object, attached to maps, photographs, and profile drawings. I'm not sure of micro-barcoding, but the rest of the technology already is in place. All we need is time and money to make it happen.

Dancing Willow said...

That would be so efficient (and way cool)! You'd definitely get more out of your time spent in the field and when rummaging through the days collections. :)