One could argue that one of the most important aspects
of archaeology is the public outreach. We have an obligation to share our
growing knowledge with our community in order to give credibility to our work.
What would be the point otherwise? Usually, the public comes into contact with
archaeology through museum exhibits, lectures, daily news, scientific articles
and books. The last ones are rarely aimed for the public and the museums are
struggling with exhibiting more than just artefacts. Since our source material
is produced in the field by field archaeologists I believe that it is here the
meeting (real or metaphorical) between the public and the archaeologist should
take place. If it’s through guided tours or a local journalist doesn’t really
matter. What matters is what is said.
In the last 5 years or so there has been a positive
change when it comes to public outreach in archaeology, at least in Sweden.
This is, I think, largely due to the breakthrough of social media and the use
of smartphones. An archaeologist can now easily give a brief report of what she
or he is doing with a photo and a few lines of text. Several of the
archaeological institutions also have blogs where they continually write about
their projects, with content written and aimed for the public.
In 2009 I did a study of the conveyance of medieval
archaeology in a journal called “Populär
Arkeologi”. This is the only popular archaeology journal in Sweden and it
has been coming out quarterly since 1983. By studying the content of every issue
for two periods of time: 1983-1989 and 2003-2009, and comparing that content
with the development of medieval archaeology at the university, I was able to
see if the articles in the journal reflected the development of the subject.
This empirical study acted as a foundation for the study of responsibility and
lead up to the question: What is the
situation of responsibility when it comes to field archaeology and public
outreach?
In Sweden the law states that an archaeological survey
or excavation has to take place if a contractor wants to build something that
is suspected to affect archaeological remains, visible or hidden beneath the
topsoil. The contractor has to report to the County Administrative board and
they, in their turn, decide whether it’s necessary to start up an
archaeological project or not. The law
also states that the contractor has to pay for the archaeology. This system
results in an abundance of archaeological projects where a lot of information
is produced continually.
Table 1. Hierarchy
of responsibility. Note that this is based on Swedish circumstances.
| Politicians / Government | Has the ultimate responsibility. Can make actual changes that enables more funding to public outreach in archaeology. |
| County administration | Makes the decisions for contract archaeological projects. Could demand more effort in public outreach and approve higher costs. |
| University | Could include more systematic
training in public outreach. |
Contract archaeological
institutions and companies | Has the responsibility to manage the competence in public outreach. |
| Archaeologists | Is in direct contact with the public
and has the responsibility to conveyarchaeology in a responsible way. |
| Popular archaeological journals | Could, as an independent actor,
raise the issue of archaeology beingintegral in the development of our
society. |
Several of my fellow archaeologists claims that they
are working with public outreach as much as they can. But then we must ask ourselves,
what kind of archaeology are we conveying? Well, basically it is the history or
prehistory that we focus on in our outreach. In our communication with the
public, directly or via a journalist, our message boils down to facts about human life in history and or
prehistory. That’s not bad in any way. Our job is to produce these kinds of
facts. But there is more to archaeology –
especially field archaeology.
The responsible way to convey archaeology is not only
to focus on these facts but all the stuff surrounding archaeological science. In
my opinion we have to include the following two aspects in our public outreach:
- The development of archaeological research. Archaeology is more than artefacts. It develops with
our society and scholars are influenced by the current zeitgeist, which in
itself is constantly changing. It’s not treasure hunting.
- The roll of field archaeology and the physical
development of our environment. The field
archaeologist in Sweden plays a vital role when it comes to urban and rural
planning and it’s crucial that the public is aware of how the system works.
My hierarchy of responsibility (see table above) tries
to summarize the complexity of the situation where everyone has a part to play.
My opinion is that it should begin at the universities with the education of
future archaeologists in how to deal with the more complex sides of
archaeological public outreach. If we can establish a routine and a sense of
comfort in conveying all aspects of archaeology, at the departments and in the
field, we can do our subject justice.
To summarize, I want to stress the fact that we ourselves, as archaeologists, have a responsibility to our own collegium and to the public equally, to convey not just the dating of artefacts but also our methods and research thesis. What are the particular questions we’re looking to answer when we are writing our reports? The public has the right to know and I think it will benefit the archaeology in the long run.
Erik Johansson is a Swedish archaeologist who specializes in medieval pottery.
