This is the question that has been asked recently by Doug’s Archaeology ‘blog, and it has been provoked a good deal of discussion on Twitter. There seems to be a general consensus that ‘people should be told’ but which people, and told what, exactly?

My own answer to the question is threefold and begins with the setup of zooarchaeology.co.uk, specifically the ‘news’ page. All answers to the question ‘why do you ‘blog about archaeology’ are necessarily personal and that word ‘news’ is revelatory about my own: it was fundamental to my approach when I first created my website and it remains so today. Some people ‘blog frequently and engagingly about new archaeological research from around the world, others write about debates and paradigms in the subject, often for the interested amateur but also sometimes for the archaeology professional or student. My own approach is somewhat more prosaic, narrow, some might even say self-promotional.

I briefly debated what to call this section of my website before settling on ‘news’ – should I have called it a ‘blog? The internet is littered with ‘blogs that are established with the best of intentions, that have a few well-meaning, sometimes interesting, articles written in a blaze of optimism before the site is abandoned. I know, I have some of them to my credit/shame. zooarchaeology.co.uk was set up as my shop window – the official front of my consultancy activities and the ‘news’ or ‘blog section was, I thought, an important part of this – both in driving traffic to my website and, more importantly demonstrating to anyone who might look that I was actively involved in research, producing ‘grey lit’ reports and presenting my work at conferences as well as publishing papers. I set myself a target at the time of writing a least one new piece of ‘news’ per calendar month and, nearly three years on, I’ve largely managed to keep to that.

In the beginning, these posts were very short; rarely longer than two paragraphs, they merely pointed the reader in the direction of other websites where further details of my latest activities could be found. Sometimes it even functioned as a sort of ‘out of office’ notice. Something strange happened though. People took notice. I acquired followers of my ‘blog. Followers that, for the most part, I didn’t know and who didn’t appear to be archaeologists. Why?

I’ve always believed that it’s an important responsibility of all archaeologists to communicate our research to the widest possible audience. Often, the general public may indirectly fund our research, sometimes they even do so directly. Beyond that though is something more rudimentary – if we don’t tell people the results of our research, then what was the point of doing it in the first place? It’s well known that ‘knowledge is power’ but what’s less often iterated is that scientific knowledge is worthless if it’s not communicated. I’m very lucky to be researching subjects of interest to so many people. I also enjoy writing.

From about this time last year, the form and length of my ‘blog posts here changed dramatically. I no longer wrote for those who might be looking to contract me but for those who were actually visiting my ‘blog. In making this change, I found that I actually enjoyed the process of ‘blogging far more. Longer posts, aimed at ‘the general public’, whatever that might mean, freed me to express ideas I might otherwise hesitate to articulate in academic print output and forced me to condense research points into accessible language – a sort of accessible, longer and more complete abstract. It also sometimes causes me to approach a familiar topic from a different angle and so clarify or alter my thinking on a subject.

So, why do I #blogarch? For three reasons – I still write to demonstrate my research activity, perhaps that is self-promotion but I won’t attempt to deny that motivation to myself or to anyone else. More importantly now though, I do so because I have come to see the platform as a valuable tool for the important job of communicating my research to the wider world . Note ‘my research’ -  with one exception, I still confine my writing here, however much I may enjoy it, to my own research and I still usually shy from engaging in wider debates for fear of burning out and letting the ‘blog languish. Finally, as I said, I write because I enjoy the process. Is that as selfish as the first reason?

On the subject of communicating archaeology, I’m duty bound to mention that we’ve just fixed the next dates for the Understanding Zooarchaeology short course at the University of Sheffield. It’s been terrific watching, interacting with, teaching and learning from the various students, lecturers, museum curators, and professional and amateur archaeologists that have attended this course over the last three years or so – now nearly two hundred people – some of whom have returned for more advanced courses. Full details of the course are provided below.

www.zooarchaeology.co.uk

Understanding Zooarchaeology 1

This course, which is now being run for the eighth time, aims to provide an understanding of the basic theory and methods which zooarchaeologists use to understand animal bone evidence. The course will include lectures, discussion and hands on practical classes. Participants will begin to develop the skills necessary to:

Recognise special/unusual faunal deposits and understand the principles of excavating animal bones.
Care for and store bones after excavation.
Identify different species from their bones and teeth.
Age and sex bones.
Recognize taphonomy, butchery and pathology.
Understand how zooarchaeological material is analysed and quantified.
Interpret site reports and zooarchaeological literature.

There will be ample opportunity during the course to ask questions and discuss the issues raised during each day. However, if you have a particular area of interest that you would like us to cover in more detail, please let us know when you register for the course.

Many people have enjoyed the Zooarchaeology Short Course, including Andrew Lawson who is a Trainee Biological Curator at Manchester Museum. Find out what he thought of the course by reading his blog.

For further information please see: http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/research/zooarchaeology-lab/short-course

You can contact us at: zooarch-shortcourse@sheffield.ac.uk

To register please go to: http://onlineshop.shef.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&modid=1&deptid=5&catid=40&prodvarid=468