Internet Archaeology. 14. Editorial.

Editorial

Judith Winters *

Cite this as: Winters, J. 2004 Editorial, Internet Archaeology 14. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.14.10

Issue 14 has closed with another great mix of research articles. The last, by Mike Heyworth, on blogs and feeds might be the shortest but informs us about an emerging and potentially crucial technology that is allowing us to keep up right to date with all manner of archaeological (and other) information. I found out the penetrating potential of this technology by accident when I loaded the article onto the journal server but did not immediately add it to the issue contents page or announce it via the usual round of archaeology discussion lists. I had however updated our own newsfeed to reflect the new content. Within 24 hours, Feed the world: sharing knowledge via blogs and news feeds already had amassed its own set of subscribers who could not really have picked up on its publication any other way! For anyone who wants to know more about the potential for archaeology but also an introduction on how to make the most of feeds and blogs in their work, then this article is certainly worth a read.

The thread of sharing knowledge runs throughout the articles in issue 14. Of course the raison d'être of any self-respecting journal is to share knowledge, and that of an e-journal is its ability to bring that knowledge to an even wider audience, and in ways that are more empowering to the reader. But this issue's authors wished not just to engage with that larger audience but had something to say to a whole new community of readers.

Stone Tool Use and Material Culture in Papua New Guinea by Karen Hardy and Paul Sillitoe, is an essentially anthropological piece of research that was re-drafted with an archaeological audience in mind and its publication in the journal, accompanied by a suite of data and images, is at a scale unlikely to have been published elsewhere.

Alan Kaiser's Application of GIS Viewshed Analysis to Roman Urban Studies: the Case-Study of Empúries, Spain demonstrates the potential of applying GIS viewshed analysis to Roman urban studies, but introduces the study not just to those interested in GIS in urban contexts but also brings the often over-looked archaeology of this region to the forefront of Roman studies.

Excavations at Cricklade, Wiltshire, 1975 by Jeremy Haslam, might have been a piece of research known only to a few since the initial report, plans and sections of these excavations had languished practically unread in an archive for 25 years. Its digital resuscitation in the journal, including experimental presentation of some of the illustrations, has given this 'old' research a new life in the 21st century, introducing its findings to a much wider audience than might have seen it in print (as was the intention 25 years ago). Associated with the Cricklade publication, the short technical note Problems with Permatrace by Guy Hopkinson and myself offers a brief but usually unseen glance into just some of the work that will go into the preparation of Internet Archaeology articles. These two articles were published with the support of English Heritage, and Internet Archaeology is very grateful to their continuing support of digital publishing intiatives within and beyond the journal.

We come full circle with the summary of From the Ground Up The Publication of Archaeological Projects: a user needs survey by Jones et al. One of the recommendations of this article is that 'multiple forms and media of dissemination' should be used in order to publish archaeological projects. So is the latest medium of feeds and blogs yet another tool we need to master in the archaeologist's ever-growing toolkit? I think so, and we can all spread the word!