The inimitable Sara Perry and I have been working on the archaeological excavation of a hard drive, for science! We’ve been writing about it on Savage Minds, the Other blog about Savages. Here are the blog posts in order:
- What Archaeologists Do
- What Archaeologists Do: Between Archaeology and Media Archaeology
- What Archaeologists Do: Research Design and the Media Archaeology Drive Project (MAD-P)
- What Archaeologists Do: The Site Report & What it Means to Excavate a Hard Drive
I’m also very excited that the Punk Archaeology volume has landed, be sure to download it–there’s a photo of me holding a trowel! A leaf trowel, BUT STILL! Many thanks to Bill Caraher, Andrew Reinhard and Kostis Kourelis for bringing the project together and allowing me to make my small contribution. Download it! Love it! Share it!
While you read the article, here’s the accompanying playlist:
Finally, with huge amounts of help from our vibrant community of digital archaeologists here at the University of York, I organized a Minecraft & Archaeology event as part of Yornight. I actively did not promote it much, as it was a pilot scheme and I wasn’t sure how it would play out. It went very well though and we were at capacity during much of the evening. I’ve been asked to write it up in a journal, so more details will be forthcoming. You’ll get a sneak preview if you happen to be in Shawn Graham’s class this evening, as I’m a remote guest in the classroom. If it works. We’ve been trying to remotely collaborate since 2006, so fingers crossed!
Colleen Morgan 
Next time you excavate a hard drive you should check out BitCurator: http://www.bitcurator.net/2014/09/25/bitcurator-1-0-release/
It was great to have you in my classroom today! The class certainly enjoyed it; you’ve given them much to think about. It’s only taken us 8 years to make that remote thingywhatsit work, so go digital archaeology!