Using the power of photography to tell a story about archaeology and society on the most extended social app for photography.
SUNDAY 18 APRIL
11:00 (WEST) // 12:00 (CEST, EET) // 13:00 (EEST, TRT, IDT)
12:00 CEST
Social Media and Archeology: a research about the Alcazaba de Almería, Spain.
Marina del Mar Martínez Román @marina_mr97
This research emerges from the curiosity about the Archaeological Heritage diffusion changes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, we decided to focus on a case study, choosing the monumental ensemble of the Alcazaba de Almería as the central axis of the investigation. That is why using a hybrid methodology of anthropology and public archaeology, we seek to obtain holistic results. The tools we chose are varied, to cover as many perspectives as possible. First of all, we conducted a web analysis of online resources that are offered by the institution itself, and by third parties associated with them. We also carried out an anonymous survey to learn the opinion of the general public. Likewise, we conducted two types of interviews for two different profiles. One of them designed for the person managing their social media, and the other designed for professional researchers. Finally, we carried out a meticulous analysis of the publications on their social medial accounts, those being Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Although information sources are diverse, we focused on their social media and website, as those are the only online communication channels between the institution and the general public. This way, we aimed to understand the diffusion processes that occur from archaeology to society and the changes that happened due to the current situation of the world.
12:15 CEST
Back to VNSP – society, archaeology and memory
Andrea Martins @bluemunda @arqueologosportugueses
Between 1937 and 1967, during all summers, archaeologists were in Vila Nova de São Pedro, a chalcolithic settlement. In decades of high poverty, a month of paid labour in the excavations was something that the entire population looked forward to. It was the month of archaeology, where men and women worked in the “castro”, and children played in the excavation. Where at the end of the campaign the party was held and where baptisms and weddings take place thanks to the archaeologist priest and the archaeologist lieutenant who became the godfather of many children. Good and joyful memories filled the minds and hearts of several generations, with the “castro” being the place of games, hiding places and dating. Place of memories and a thousand living stories in the VNSP population. The return of the archaeological campaigns in 2017 was received by locals with great joy, as the realization of an old dream and desire, feelings expressed during the daily visits to the excavation and recorded in the VNSP guestbook. These are the images we want to share, in a case where it is the local population who calls archaeology and recognizes its importance for preservation and memory.
12:30 CEST
Fifteen years of research in public archaeology in Greece
Anastasia Sakellariadi @anassakel
This Instagram photo-essay draws from a photo-archive compiled during 15 years of research in public archaeology in Greece and, more specifically, research in public perceptions of the past, antiquities and archaeology in contemporary communities. Archaeological heritage speaks with communities in subtle and unsubtle ways. Similarly, people live entire lives surrounded by ruins of the past and make sense of them in their own life stories.
Glimpses of such encounters are presented and commented upon with insights from surveys and in-depth interviews among communities. From extensive archaeological sites in the middle of the urban nexus to rural communities, from prominent ancient drama festivals to folk-country fairs, people have always perceived and associated with the past, its ruins and archaeology, as a profession or a research endeavour, in their own unique ways. Urban design, public space, visual perceptions, lives and livelihoods, all are part of the entangled meanings archaeology carries for people.
12:45 CEST
UNIARQ: Outreaching Archaeology
André Pereira @uniarq_flul
Since the 70s, through personal contact with local inhabitants at the excavations, one of the main goals of UNIARQ is to outreach, changing society and helping to understand the archaeological activity and the importance of archaeological heritage. Today, we use a variety of channels and this presentation will delve into this activity.
13:00 CEST
Amigos de Medina Azahara. The Fertile Heritage
Ana María Zamorano Arenas; Juan Bolaños Jurado @amigosmedinaazahara
Amigos de Medina Azahara (amigosdemedinazahara.com) is a citizen’s association founded to promote a contemporary view of the Archaeological Site of Madinat al-Zahra and to establish channels of dialogue between past, present and future. It is an open, inclusive and plural collective, made up of members of civil society with a clear vocation to participate in the public debate on heritage conservation and sustainable development through proactive proposals.
We base our work on collective participation and a civil, creative and proactive approach. We consider knowledge to be an inexhaustible source of satisfaction and freedom in the face of the prevailing culture of the Selfie. For us, Madinat al-Zahra is fertile land, an expression of the excellence achieved by the men and women who inhabited it in the tenth Century and a source of knowledge and inspiration for future generations, a path to make us better human beings.
13:15 CEST
Industrial archeology for engineers. Another way of doing Public Archeology from the university classroom
Alberto Polo Romero @PoluxArq @arqueo_industrial
The role of the Humanities in society and particularly at the university has been widely discussed in recent decades.
However, the experience of several years in engineering classrooms teaching Industrial Archaeology allows us to see how this subject can help us create citizens aware of the fragility of heritage and the need for its conservation.
But, beyond these aspects, the construction of heritage communities and the generation of synergies and resources that help to disseminate the Industrial Heritage is analyzed from the classroom.
The proposed presentation will show us the didactic potential of Archaeology beyond the Humanities and the opportunity that we are offered to educate a potentially hostile audience to our work.
13:30 CEST
Tangible memories – photographic film in the digital age
Jovana Tripkovic @whateverswrongwithme
Since its inception, photography has been one of the vital documentation methods in archaeology. While technology today revolves around digital data, the photographic film has become a relic of the past with no practical value in modern archaeology. Nevertheless, the intangibility of digital data is precisely why photographic film could provide a possibility for a documentation niche worth exploring. Properly stored negatives can achieve a lifespan of up to 1000 years, can be reused countless times to develop photographs and their scans can have better resolution than most high-end digital cameras today. Their true value, aside from the technical specifications, lies in the fact that they can be introduced into museum inventories as tangible objects (in the same way glass photographic plates already are). I have been fortunate to work on projects that apart from heritage preservation also put a great effort into supporting the local communities both financially and socially. Photographs provided in this brief Instagram essay portray the collaboration of archaeologists and local communities and their contribution to research and preservation of the past. Negatives from which these photographs were developed belong to the Belgrade City Museum as substantiation to both the project they were made for, as well as this dying technology.
13:45 CEST
Through the excavation site, and people we found there. The project of the Terramara of Pilastri and its communities
Giulia Osti, Simone Bergamini, Chiara Milanesi @terramara_pilastri
After the conclusion of the excavation campaign of 2018, the team of archaeologists digging at the Bronze-age village of Pilastri (Emilia Romagna, Italy) took a couple of years “off”. During that period, the activities realised with the public have been decreasing — or better were directed towards other local archaeological evidence and sites — and research, or its “desk” version, never stopped. After an intensive and thematic seminar organised in 2019, all the archaeologists that have been participating in the project were asked to provide scientific (but accessible to the broader public) content about their findings. The resulting book, entirely funded by the local Municipality, will propose either an extensive and up-to-date account of the research undertaken so far and a multiple-level analysis of the impact produced by the project on its stakeholders. Nevertheless, the most demanding aspect of the research on the public side has been defining to what extent the stakeholders impacted the project. This Instagram essay will present a short overview of the most relevant community-based initiatives and events and their protagonists, to explore the intertwinement between the project and people gravitating around it in the present and the past.
*We encourage presenters and other interested people to pass by the live room for a chat in the break
You can find a short visual guide on how to contribute in this format here.
