Archaeology as Worldbuilding

2025/08/27 by Colleen Morgan · 1 voice · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Anthropology: Ethics, History, Culture #Archaeological Research and Protection #Philosophy, History, and Historiography

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0959774325100164

Abstract

Abstract Worldbuilding is a concept that has been used to describe the creation of immersive landscapes in fiction and games and is deeply resonant with archaeological knowledge construction. This article argues for worldbuilding in archaeology as a creative intervention that encourages an exploration of archaeological data throughout the process of creation, interpretation and dissemination to generate past worlds, shaped through community storytelling. Through the examples of Çatalhöyük in Second Life , Other Eyes and the Avebury Papers projects, I explore a playful practice that closely interrogates reuse of archaeological data and encourages lateral thinking amongst students and other archaeological storytellers.

Citations

• The Rani of Sirmur: An Essay in Reading the Archives

Cited by

• Digital Archaeological Data in the Creative Industries: access, barriers, and the potential for inspiration
• Building Data Models for Archaeology: The case of the TETRARCHs Storytelling Data Model

Discussions

• I just published my article Archaeology as Worldbuilding, an effort that grows out of 20+ years of digital (and analog) archaeological making. Adjacent to recent arguments about storytelling, I broade [bsky, 235 points, 6 comments]

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