Archaeological tools for documentation and communication

Presentation given by Nicholas Nilsson (Kalmar County Museum) at EAA 2024 during CARARE's session "Making Connections: Towards Archaeological Narratives in Contemporary Society".
For 10 years, a digital workflow, IDA - Instant field Documentation and Availability, has been used by Kalmar County Museum’s archaeologists. The workflow is completely digital: from surveying, documentation, analysis, and communication. Using a cloud service, data is collected via an app, but this also enables communication of data to colleagues, researchers, and the general public in real time. Not all archaeological data makes sense to communicate. Seeing all the documentation data that an archaeologist fills out can be tiring for a generally interested audience. By using filters, customized maps for the public or other stakeholders can be created. Communication takes place through shared maps or using so-called Story maps, a tool where maps, images, video, and text can interact to create a story about a place and to enable a digital participation from the public and others in the archaeologist’s work. By using social media, Instagram, Facebook or websites, this information is shared and communicated in an easy way. By using Story maps for communication, 3D information can also be shared as well as 360 videos and images, which can further enhance a story. As such, Story maps does not only make a valuable tool for communication, it also makes archaeology accessible for people that for different reasons are unable to visit excavation sites physically. It is also possible to adapt the information to reach specific target groups, such as nursing homes, schools, etc. This increases the possibility of reaching out with archaeological information to different groups, which strengthens archaeology’s role in society.

1. Archaeological tools for
documentation and
communication
Nicholas Nilsson, Kalmar County Museum, Sweden

2. IDA – Instant field Documentation and
availability
ArcGIS Pro
ArcGIS Online
ArcGIS Field Maps
ArcGIS Story Maps

3. 2014
Esri app Collector

4. Simplify
Improve
Communicate

5. Archaeological documentation

6. Archaeological documentation

7. Archaeological documentation

8. Communication

9. Communicating

10. Communicating results (arcgis.com)
Communication