Day of Archaeology

Blogging event

The Day of Archaeology is an annual, 24-hour, international online event in which archaeologists and those in related fields write blog posts about their work. It was inspired by the Day of Digital Humanities[1] and, similarly, allows practitioners of many kinds, to document their work informally and 'provide a window into the daily lives of archaeologists from all over the world'.[2] Though it encourages diversity rather than thematic posts, the project has some similarities to Blog Action Day.

## Overview

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The first event took place on 27 July 2011. The event is organised by a voluntary committee of archaeologists based in the United Kingdom, United States of America and Spain.[1] The main site runs a customised WordPress content management system and the event is promoted through Twitter and Facebook pages (see External links).

The project is supported by several British archaeological and academic organisations: server space is provided on the Portable Antiquities Scheme servers[3] and long-term digital preservation is provided by the Archaeology Data Service. L-P Archaeology and the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities provide technical and management advice.[1] In 2011 and 2013 the event was timed to coincide with the Festival of British Archaeology.[4]

The project covers any form of work that could be considered archaeology and encourages contributions from any level of professionalism.[2]

## External coverage

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Several archaeologists have blogged about the project in official[5] and personal[6] capacities and the project committee wrote posts on various other sites,[3][7] notably the Society for Historical Archaeology[8] and the British Museum.[9]

After the 2011 event a preliminary data mining analysis was conducted.[10] Similarly, after the 2014 event a topic modelling and keyword analysis was published.[11]

The Day of Archaeology project was nominated for a British Archaeology Award in July 2011 in the 'Best Representation of Archaeology in the Media' category and was highly commended.[12]

## Event summaries

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Year | Date | Number of participants | Number of countries | Number of posts

|
|
|
|

2013 | 26 July | 1067 | Not known | 329
2012 | 29 June | over 300 | Not known | 343
2011 | 27 July | over 400 | Not known | 429
2014 | 11 July |  |  |
2015 | 24 July |  |  |

Data sources:[2][7][13]

## References

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1. ^ a b c "Day of Archaeology: Project Background". 2013. Archived from the original on 2014-07-18. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
2. ^ a b c "Day of Archaeology: About the Project". 2013. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
3. ^ a b Pett, Daniel (2011-04-28). "Portable Antiquities Scheme: Day of Archaeology 2011". Archived from the original on 2013-10-31. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
4. ^ "Festival Listing: Day of Archaeology". Council for British Archaeology. July 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2013.
5. ^ "RCAHMS: Day of Archaeology 2012". Retrieved 2013-04-19.
6. ^ "Netzschichten: Day of Archaeology". 2011-07-28. Archived from the original on 2013-10-28. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
7. ^ a b Richardson, Lorna (2012-05-30). "UCL Centre for Digital Humanities: Day of Archaeology 2012". Retrieved 2013-04-19.
8. ^ "Society for Historical Archaeology: The Day of Archaeology 2012". 2012-06-22. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
9. ^ Pett, Daniel (2011-07-27). "A day in the life of a lot of archaeologists". Archived from the original on 2012-02-02. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
10. ^ Graham, Shawn (2012-07-09). "Electric Archaeology: Mining a Day of Archaeology". Retrieved 2013-04-19.
11. ^ Marwick, Ben (2014-05-29). "A Distant Reading of the Day of Archaeology". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-02-04.
12. ^ "British Archaeology Awards 2012". 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2013-04-19.
13. ^ The Day of Archaeology Team (1 August 2013). "Wrapping Up the Day of Archaeology 2013". Retrieved 30 October 2013.

## External links

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* Day of Archaeology on Twitter
* Day of Archaeology on Facebook
* Day of Archaeology on Flickr