Dustings of Paradata as Pedagogical Support at Four Archaeological Field-School Sites

Abstract

Archaeological fieldwork requires systematic approaches to recording and archiving a variety of data, from information about contexts and artifacts to methodologies that can vary from season to season. Drawing together retrospective analyses of data-making efforts in four student-engaged archaeological projects—the Archaeological Exploration of Sardis, American Excavations at Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project, Poggio Civitate Archaeological Project, and Venus Pompeiana Project—this chapter focuses on the paradata work practiced by on-site data archivists. Paradata are the human processes that generate data. Field schools and the archaeological research they produce benefit from a “dusting,” i.e., analytical narration of the processes, proactively led by data archivists in context and collaboration with team members. Paradata make explicit the pedagogical goals at the heart of each project while simultaneously supporting the contextual integrity of future archaeological research.