Exploring novel technologies for archaeological fieldwork

Abstract

The thesis takes a novel approach to the design and evaluation of technologies for archaeological fieldwork. As digital technologies are often developed or appropriated by archaeologists for the purpose of acquiring or improving the management of archaeological data, the thesis instead explores how digital technologies can benefit fieldwork teams by supporting communication and awareness. The thesis begins by demonstrating how the development of archaeological computing has resulted in a focus on developing or appropriating digital technologies that support the acquisition and management of archaeological data. Following this, the results of ethnographic field studies conducted at four excavation sites are discussed. These studies explored how archaeologists communicated on-site, their awareness of one another’s activities, and their work practices around existing and novel technologies. The results of the ethnography are followed up with a technology probe conducted at a field school at Itchen Abbas, UK. The findings from these studies were subsequently used to derive design implications for a novel technology aimed at improving archaeologists’ awareness and communication when working in the field. A prototype technology was then built, deployed in the field, evaluated and iterated upon, with a final evaluation conducted in the field. The first deployment promoted conversation, however some archaeologists found the visualisations complicated and difficult to interpret. A second deployment was therefore designed to address this. When re-deployed, archaeologists spent a large amount of time discussing the intervention, and also re-appropriated it for playful interaction.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Graeme Earl: orcid.org/0000-0001-9077-4605

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