Save the date, the Day of Archaeology 2014 is coming next Friday, July 11th!
For the fourth year in a row, on this special day, archaeologists and people who work, study and volunteer on some level in the archaeological world will share their experiences and show how diverse and rich this subject truly is.
Born thanks to a conversation on Twitter, the DoA is about knowing what archaeology is really like, and learning what archaeologists actually do, wherever they operate in the world.
Blog posts, pictures and videos will be hosted at dayofarchaeology.com, each of them telling a story and each of them helping raising public awareness of the role archaeology has in preserving the past and building the future.
Isn’t it enough to want to take part in that?
To know a little more about this day, we contacted the team behind this event, and Matt Law (Cardiff University/ C & N Hollinrake Ltd.) has kindly agreed to answer some questions for us.
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Hi, and thank you for accepting this interview! First question, and of course, it must be what is the Day of Archaeology and what does it represent for you?
Hi, Matt here on behalf of the DoA team. Thanks for asking us! Day of Archaeology is a global celebration of the work that archaeologists do, whether they are professionals, volunteers, researchers, teachers or students. More specifically, it is a collaborative blogging project which invites hundreds of archaeologists around the world to contribute material representative of their work on one day.
On a more personal level, for me it is a tremendous learning experience – every year so far I have learned more about archaeology and what it means to be an archaeologist than I ever do.
When did you get the idea of organizing the DoA and what are the reasons behind it?
The idea is stolen I’m afraid! It came from following the Day of Digital Humanities in March 2011, an event which invites people who define themselves as digital humanists to write a wiki entry about their working day. It seemed like a natural idea for archaeology, which is a discipline that has a tremendous potential global community. Lorna and I had a brief conversation on Twitter and were very quickly joined by colleagues who had the technical skills to make the project happen, and a very generous offer of hosting from Dan Pett and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, who still host the project.
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