Public Archaeology Via Skyscraper: Outcome and Experience

Abstract

A recent archaeology awareness campaign projected Public Service Announcements from the top of a city skyscraper. These 30-second videos featured animated 3D artifact reconstructions alongside an archaeology-themed message. This was not just public archaeology done in an unusual way but public archaeology conducted toward an unusually broad end: the processes involved in creating the PSAs served many masters, not just archaeology’s needs. This paper reports on this reflexive, dialogic, public archaeology case study where communities make use of the past for their own needs in the present.