DIY Digital Storytelling in Archaeology: a comparative study of narrative, immersive filmmaking, and gaming for pedagogy and public outreach

Archaeologists strive to disseminate their research to audiences through various mediums, often with limited time and funding available in Do-it-yourself (DIY) projects. However, there is a lack of established methodologies for the evaluation of the impact of DIY projects or the effectiveness of the media that archaeologists employ to disseminate knowledge about the past. This thesis employs a practice-based experimental approach with a strong creative element to develop digital media and a methodology to evaluate their impact on archaeological knowledge dissemination.

The archaeological storytelling media forms that were created in this research are a textual narrative, an interactive digital narrative (IDN), and a VR-video. The narratives are based on the Archaeology of Personhood model and combine osteological reports, archaeological evidence, and historical information. They recreate the life and death of the individual MYC1V buried at grave V at Grave Circle A at Mycenae. This research uses a mixed methods design to analyse both quantitative and qualitative data in the form of surveys and structured interviews.

The key findings of the study are first, that Twine, and consequently IDNs, are the most suitable media for communicating archaeological research to audiences in DIY projects created by archaeologists with limited funding and time. Furthermore, the study confirmed the understanding that 360 filmmaking and VR-video are emotive media and thus can be used to emotionally engage audiences with the past. Lastly, the research reinforced the idea that archaeological storytelling is an effective way to disseminate archaeological knowledge, and consequently that the Archaeology of Personhood model, especially in a form of IDN, is an ideal medium to present information about the lives of people in the past.

The significance of the research’s original contribution to knowledge is twofold: first, the thesis provides a novel methodology for developing and evaluating DIY archaeological projects with limited budget. Second, the research begins to decolonise the history of excavations at Mycenae by discussing Stamatakis’ important contribution to Mycenaean archaeology, providing an example for decolonising cryptocolonial heritage.