Integrating Digital Datasets into Public Engagement through ArcGIS StoryMaps

Matthew D Howland,Brady Liss,Mohammad Najjar,Thomas E Levy

doi:10.1017/aap.2020.14

Matthew D Howland, Brady Liss + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1017/aap.2020.14

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Abstract

AbstractArchaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms. This can be done through hypermedia and deep mapping as approaches to public archaeology. In twenty-first-century archaeology, scholars can rely on vastly improved technologies to aid them in these efforts toward public engagement, including digital photography, geographic information systems, and three-dimensional models. These technologies, even when collected for analysis or documentation, can be valuable tools for educating and involving the public with archaeological methods and how these methods help archaeologists learn about the past. Ultimately, academic storytelling can benefit from making archaeological results and methods accessible and engaging for stakeholders and the general public. ArcGIS StoryMaps is an effective tool for integrating digital datasets into an accessible framework that is suitable for interactive public engagement. This article describes the benefits of using ArcGIS StoryMaps for hypermedia and deep mapping–based public engagement using the story of copper production in Iron Age Faynan, Jordan, as a case study.

Highlights

Archaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms
We aim to consider the viability of StoryMaps for archaeological public outreach and suggest that the platform can be a powerful tool for archaeologists, primarily based on three main characteristics that recommend its use to scholars interested in digital storytelling in a hypermedia or deep mapping context: its ease of use, its compatibility with many different types of datasets, and its interactivity
The interactivity of the platform allows for hypermedia and deep mapping outputs that facilitate engagement by the public in the archaeological past and with the archaeological process

Summary

Introduction

Archaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms This can be done through hypermedia and deep mapping as approaches to public archaeology. Archaeologists have a responsibility to educate the public about the knowledge they produce and the methods they use to do so (Kintigh 1996) Despite this responsibility, archaeologists have often fallen into modes of archaeological practice that treat the public’s lack of engagement with archaeological data as evidence of either their lack of interest in or their inability to understand serious archaeological practice (Grima 2016). Earley-Spadoni (2017) highlights Esri’s ArcGIS StoryMaps as one platform that may allow for the type of interactive, hypermedia deep mapping that can serve as a way to combine many threads of evidence into digital storytelling

Objectives

Conclusion