Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:08:50.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The coming tsunami of digital artefacts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2021

John Aycock
John Aycock*
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Canada (✉ [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Contemporary life has become deeply entangled with the digital. Every day, huge quantities of data, or digital artefacts, are generated. To date, the archaeological study of these artefacts has been limited, its potential demonstrated by a few initial studies and, more recently, the emergence of archaeogaming. If archaeology seeks to understand human culture, however, the study of these digital artefacts must become mainstream. This will require collaboration with computer scientists to bring an archaeological sensibility to understanding the virtual. Ultimately, the aims and methods required resemble those that archaeologists have already developed, but require a change of mindset if they are to be widely deployed for the study of digital artefacts.

Keywords

digital artefactsarchaeogamingmedia archaeologycomputer science
Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 95 , Issue 384 , December 2021 , pp. 1584 - 1589
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aycock, J. & Biittner, K.. 2019. Inspecting the foundation of Mystery House. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 6: 183–205. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.36745CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aycock, J. & Biittner, K.. 2020. LeGACy code: studying how (amateur) game developers used Graphic Adventure Creator. 15 th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games: 1–7.10.1145/3402942.3402988CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aycock, J. & Copplestone, T.. 2019. Entombed: an archaeological examination of an Atari 2600 game. The Art, Science, and Engineering of Programming 3: 4. https://doi.org/10.22152/programming-journal.org/2019/3/4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aycock, J. & Reinhard, A.. 2017. Copy protection in Jet Set Willy: developing methodology for retrogame archaeology. Internet Archaeology 45. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.45.2Google Scholar
Aycock, J., Reinhard, A. & Therrien, C.. 2019. A tale of two CDs: archaeological analysis of full-motion video formats in two PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Games. Open Archaeology 5: 350–64. https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2019-0022CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bankhurst, A. 2020. Three billion people worldwide now play video games, new report shows. Available at: https://www.ign.com/articles/three-billion-people-worldwide-now-play-video-games-new-report-shows (accessed 21 May 2021).Google Scholar
Barker, P. 1993. Techniques of archaeological excavation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Carver, M. 2009. Archaeological investigation. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology. n.d. Constitution. Available at: https://caa-international.org/constitution (accessed 21 May 2021).Google Scholar
Copplestone, T.J. 2017. Designing and developing a playful past in video games, in Mol, A.A.A., Ariese-Vandemeulebroucke, C.E., Boom, K.H.J. & Politopoulos, A. (ed.) The interactive past: archaeology, heritage & video games: 85–97. Leiden: Sidestone.Google Scholar
Denard, H. 2016. A new introduction to the London Charter, in Bentkowska-Kafel, A., Denard, H. & Baker, D. (ed.) Paradata and transparency in virtual heritage: 57–71. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dennis, L.M. 2016. Archaeogaming, ethics, and participatory standards. SAA Archaeological Record 16(5): 29–33.Google Scholar
Dennis, L.M. 2020. Digital archaeological ethics: successes and failures in disciplinary attention. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 3: 210–18. https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.24CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elsaesser, T. 2016. Media archaeology as symptom. New Review of Film and Television Studies 14: 181–215. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400309.2016.1146858CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Entertainment Software Association. 2019. Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Available at: https://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ESA_Essential_facts_2019_final.pdf (accessed 21 May 2021).Google Scholar
Entertainment Software Association of Canada. 2019. The Canadian video game industry 2019. Available at: http://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/CanadianVideoGameSector2019_EN.pdf (accessed 21 May 2021).Google Scholar
Finn, C. 2013. Silicon Valley, in Finn, C., Graves-Brown, P., Harrison, R. & Piccini, A. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of the archaeology of the contemporary world: 657–70. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199602001.013.038Google Scholar
Flick, C., Dennis, L.M. & Reinhard, A.. 2017. Exploring simulated game worlds. ORBIT Journal 1(2): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.29297/orbit.v1i2.46Google Scholar
Graham, S. 2020. An enchantment of digital archaeology: raising the dead with agent-based models, archaeogaming and artificial intelligence (Digital Archaeology: Documenting the Anthropocene 1). New York: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Haigh, T. 2014. The tears of Donald Knuth. Communications of the ACM 58: 40–44. https://doi.org/10.1145/2688497CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huggett, J., Reilly, P. & Lock, G.. 2018. Whither digital archaeological knowledge? The challenge of unstable futures. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 1: 42–54. https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huhtamo, E. & Parikka, J.. 2011. Introduction: an archaeology of media archaeology, in Huhtamo, E. & Parikka, J. (ed.) Media archaeology: approaches, applications, and implications: 1–21. Berkeley (CA): University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520948518CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology. n.d. About. Available at: https://journal.caa-international.org/about (accessed 21 May 2021).Google Scholar
Meyers Emery, K. & Reinhard, A.. 2015. Trading shovels for controllers: a brief exploration of the portrayal of archaeology in video games. Public Archaeology 14: 137–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/14655187.2015.1112693CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moshenska, G. 2014. The archaeology of (flash) memory. Post-Medieval Archaeology 48: 255–59.Google Scholar
Moshenska, G. 2016. Reverse engineering and the archaeology of the modern world. Forum Kritische Archäologie 5: 16–28.Google Scholar
Perry, S. & Morgan, C.. 2015. Materializing media archaeologies: the MAD-P hard drive excavation. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 2: 94–104. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i1.27083CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reilly, P., Todd, S. & Walter, A.. 2016. Rediscovering and modernising the digital Old Minster of Winchester. Digital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage 3: 33–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2016.04.001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinhard, A. 2015. Excavating Atari: where the media was the archaeology. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 2: 86–93. https://doi.org/10.1558/jca.v2i1.27108CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinhard, A. 2018a. Archaeogaming: an introduction to archaeology in and of video games. New York: Berghahn.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinhard, A. 2018b. Adapting the Harris Matrix for software stratigraphy. Advances in Archaeological Practice 6: 157–72. https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2018.10CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reinhard, A. 2019. Archaeology of digital environments: tools, methods, and approaches. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of York.Google Scholar
Richardson, L.-J. 2019. Using social media as a source for understanding public perceptions of archaeology: research challenges and methodological pitfalls. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 2: 151–62. https://doi.org/10.5334/jcaa.39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rollefson, G.O. 1992. A Neolithic game board from ʿAin Ghazal, Jordan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 286: 1–5. https://doi.org/10.2307/1357113CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TIGA. n.d. About the UK video games industry. Available at: https://tiga.org/about-tiga-and-our-industry/about-uk-video-games-industry (accessed 21 May 2021).Google Scholar
Watrall, E. 2002. Digital pharaoh: archaeology, public education and interactive entertainment. Public Archaeology 2: 163–69. https://doi.org/10.1179/pua.2002.2.3.163CrossRefGoogle Scholar