Kittens and mummies and rednecks, Oh my!

Rednecks and archaeologists have different definitions of
the world "excavation".

Youtube is one of the most commonly used websites for entertainment and procrastination, but many interesting educational videos can be found amongst puppies, kittens, and Korean pop music stars. When sifting through youtube videos, it is more important than ever to question and analyze everything that comes up. After I plugged "archaeology" into the search bar, the variety of videos that appeared was incredible. One of my personal favorites had the be the "Redneck Archaeologist Show" (with the emphasis on redneck rather than archaeologist.) It featured more explosions and beer bellies than  artifacts and excavations. A person looking for good information on archaeology should stay as far away from this youtube channel as they can, but it represented the many different definitions of archaeologist held by the general public.

On the other end of the spectrum were the full length, 45 minute to an hour long national geographic documentaries that are available for anyone to watch, anytime, for free. While I could call in to question the legitimacy/accuracy of National Geographic's documentaries, it won't change the fact that this is an extremely valuable resource.

The videos that I found to be the most valuable to the field of archaeology sit somewhere between the ridiculous and the educational. I found numerous compilations of the top ten or twenty "most incredible archaeological finds". These videos ranged from two to ten minutes of quick video clips and bits of  information on a number of interesting archaeological finds. Because they are short and interesting, people casually browsing youtube are likely to watch them. Five sentences and a few interesting pictures are all it takes to inspire a random person to want to learn more. I googled a few of the finds myself while watching compilation videos. While the number of inaccurate "archaeological" videos nearly cancels out all of the educational material on youtube, the websites true value is sparking interest in the people who weren't looking for it.

youtube.com

Peeling Back the Layers of Archaeology

Graffiti Archaeology is a website that tries to engage curiosity and exploration of the viewer. It shows how the same location changes over time, spanning many years. This time lapse collage is displayed in an interactive "grafarc explorer," where the viewer can move through layers of time to see the superimposed images of the changing art. The creator of this website encourages people to submit their own photographs of any walls with changing graffiti in their area. In addition, there is a donations section in which the proceeds go towards increasing the bandwidth of the site in order to show more locations the photographers are submitting. They also give credit to the photographers whose photos they use.

I think this website does an excellent job showing change over time in an interactive, captivating way. If we tie this idea into the ancient worlds, the public could learn a lot about change with an idea about the comparisons of time as well. For example, we could show artist's reconstructions of the Colosseum (right) changing with time. Then, the viewer will be able to use the time line below it to flip through different years. In addition, we could include a short description of what happened in the area around that time and the theories of why it changed. I think the manual control of flipping through the years and the pictures will cause the viewer to retain the information better.

http://grafarc.org/