Welcome to the Prescot Street Dig digital project.
This web site has been put together by L P Archaeology so that people from all backgrounds and levels of knowledge about archaeology can find out more about our excavation and follow our progress as we investigate this fascinating site. This article attempts to introduce the project and each of it’s sections with a view to explaining why we think it is important and what we are trying to do.
Data
The digital project was always founded around the idea of publishing our “raw” data as openly and quickly as possible as a way to promote collaboration and comment. The database is live online as we dig. In the spirit of deep mapping, this is an unfinished work. Observations and interpretations are added everyday, gradually we are building up a coherent body of data about what we have dug. The data is all put online via our own ARK recording kit.
The Journal
The idea of the Journal was to give voice to those daily discussions that we have amongst ourselves. I appreciate that this has been done by other projects, notably at Catal Hoyuk. But our aim here is to provide narrative written by the creators of the data that links directly to the records themselves, the journal is not optional, it forms an essential part of the creation of the collective narrative both of our dig and of the archaeology.
Visual Media
The videography project offers a further very seductive and important medium for demonstrating what we do. Anies has tried to keep the editing quite honest and avoid too many of the ‘tricks’ of TV. The aim being to show something of life on site. The videos form part of our Galleries section which allows us to pull in media from around the web. The diggers take digital pictures of the site, of each other, of things they find relevant and these are all included into the overall narrative. More formal archaeological photography also has its place within the system, following our view that it is better to have both voices rather than one or the other.
Jumping off points
The The Site gives us space to provide more structured ‘jumping off’ points for users who are new to archaeology. This section is particularly pertinent to the discussion above about how far the ‘expert voice’ prevents people from forming their own opinions. On the plus side, this section does give us scope to add in those elements of deep maps that never find a place in modern archaeological literature, such as folklore, antiquarian observations and oral history.
Learning
The Learning section provides a really similar role but this time aimed at teachers, children and parents, the idea being that we can try to engage the widest possible audience.
Glossary
The inclusion of a comprehensive Glossary is central to ensuring that all the information available on the project website is accessible and understandable. Archaeology has developed it’s own terminology and vocabulary, often using key terms that may have completely different meanings outside the world of archaeology. Through referencing these terms and concepts within the body of the texts, we hope that the veil can be lifted slightly – more complicated concepts are externally linked to relevant websites with more elaborate explanations.