Digging Through the Web

Archaeology on the World Wide Web

 

This is another  lab assignment you can do on your own, and it'll be a good way to expand on the limited material presented in the class!

One of the most important  resources for finding information about archaeology is the world wide web. The web has been around long enough now that you would have to be a hermit living in a cave not to be aware of the fact that the web is changing the way people find and use information. (If you are that hermit, see me, and we'll get your started.)

Objectives of this lab:

• To help you find out just how much good archaeology there is on the World Wide Web.
• To expand the amount of materials about archaeology you've gotten this term.
• To help you learn how to evaluate web-based source material.

Let's assume you know about basic web use and get you started on your lab. It is a bit of a web scavenger hunt, where you need to find key bits of information. On a sheet of paper,  list the question number, then jot down your answer.

If you want, much of the information can come right off the web. Here's a simple way to do that. Open a word processor file and put your name and other information at the top. Then type in numbers from 1-5. When you go to the web page, as for example,  in number 3 below, asking for a definition of lithics, just block the information, then use the copy and paste functions under the edit drop down menu and finally, put the answer in your word processor file after number 3. Then just save or print the word processor file when you are done. This will save you a few keystrokes and my eyes eyes from reading your bad handwriting.

Web Tasks (shown in italics):

1. For starters, use the IUPUI Anthro Department pages and find out where Professor Paul Mullins has recently been doing archaeology.
2. Using a search engine. If you need to find information on the web it can get difficult. Some of you already know this. You need to learn to use search engines efficiently, and even then it can be tough. Try Google or some other search engine.  Search for Crow Creek massacre (an excavation I was in charge of) by just typing in  those words. Then put "crow creek massacre" in quotation marks as I've done in this sentence. This exercise will give you a good feeling for the problems and complexity of web searching. Try the advanced searches available and see what differences they make. Once you've looked for Crow Creek, simply write down what state the massacre happened in and the approximate date of the massacre. If you get to the Crow Creek massacre web site, look around. You're likely find it fascinating! Leaving the same text in the search engine box, click on Image (if using Google), and see what comes up. Copy a picture of the massacre into your word processor file (just right click the image, hit copy on the drop-down, go back to you paper, then hit Paste.
3. Web site that list lots of links in an organized way are called indexes. If they are extremely large and help guide you through materials they are sometimes called meta-indexes. A really terrific one for archaeology is About.com Archaeology.  It has have tremendous resources! Explore a bit.    Write down who the "guide" is and where she works. (Hint: Click on her picture.)
4. These indexes have links to many archaeological sites such as that at Crow Creek. On the About.com Archaeology web site, look at the Archives pages, then choose a topic that interests you. Visit a specific archaeological site. This may be anywhere in the world. Write down the url (the web address for the site), where the site was, and one interesting thing about the site you observed.

Each of these is worth 5 points.

For 5 extra consideration points, use the web search engines, the IUPUI pages, your intuition, or other methods to find out what a Australian Aboriginal instrument Dr. Zimmerman plays and who made his favorite one. Write down the name of the instrument and who made his favorite one. Copy and past the picture of Dr. Z playing it into your report. If you think you can stand the pain, give a listen to him playing it!

Something else for you to consider:

About Using and Evaluating Web Sites

The web is an amazing place to find information. It is much more fluid than "hard copy" printed media, but every bit as useful. Its fluidity is reflected in the number of web sites that get added or disappear every day. People often complain about this, but it's not all that different from books, journals or magazines going out of print. It's just more difficult to find dead and gone web sites! Others complain that "the web just has junk on it" or that the material on web sites is not peer reviewed and therefore not as good as that in other print sources. Look in any library. There you'll find lots of "junk" too, and lots that is not peer reviewed.

What it all boils down to is that you have to learn how to use the web efficiently and how to evaluate materials. There are lots of different ways to do this. Here are a few suggestions or questions you might ask:

1. Who has prepared the site? Is any author information available on the web or on links from it? Was it prepared as the "official" web site of an "official" organization, such as a tribe's web page or that of an organization dealing with some American Indian subject matter? If so, the information will likely have been approved by the organization, so should be somewhat accurate.

2. Is the author of materials knowledgeable about the subject?  How is that reflected in the web site? Use some caution here. Material can seem very authoritative when it is down "in black and white" or when the presentation is "slick." Evaluate the material itself.   Are sources given? Is it well written, spell checked and grammatically correct (this is not a sole indicator of quality by any means, but it does show a level of care or concern with quality!).

3. How recently was the site updated? This may have little to do with quality or accuracy of information, but it does have to do with the currency of  information.

4. Why was the web site developed? Is it a personal or "fun" site? If so, it may be less valid in terms of accuracy of materials. Is the site an academic site? If so, it may contain a great deal of valid and useful information, some of it peer reviewed.

5. Who controls the web site? Is  the site developed for or by an organization or a particular person or project? This has nothing to do with authenticity or validity of information. Rather, it has to do with the perspective of the site. This can be important for understanding the reasons the site was constructed (see #3 above). .

6. Does the site present issues? If a site presents issues such as that related to some aspect of pseudoscience in archaeology, it may present biased information. This does not mean that the information is inaccurate; rather, it may simply be one-sided. Use some caution.