Creating Ambassadors Through Digital Media: reflections from the Sandby borg project

Abstract

In 2010, five caches of top quality Migration-period jewellery were found at the Iron Age ring fort of Sandby borg, on the island of Öland, Sweden. When subsequent archaeological investigations revealed evidence of a violent massacre in the late 5th century, which left the victims lying on the spot where they had fallen, media and public interest increased rapidly. Since the local community raised concerns about the fast-growing interest in the project and the sensitive status of the ring fort, digital media was used as an important tool to communicate and work with different stakeholders. In this article, we present some experiences and insights from two separate projects with the aim of involving the public; a public outreach programme, Culture for Children, conducted in 2014-2015 and supported by the Swedish Arts Council, and a crowdfunding project launched at Kickstarter in December 2014, which enabled one season of fieldwork in 2015. The article concludes with a brief reflection on the topic of digital engagement in public archaeology.

Keywords

• archaeology
• digital engagement
• co-production
• local community
• crowdfunding
• Sandby borg