The amazing Lorna-Jane Richardson organised the first Public Archaeology Twitter Conference as part of her work and experimentation in digital public archaeology on 27th and 28th April 2017. It was an amazing day full of brilliant presentations in the format of maximum 12 tweets over a 15 minute period. There were 58 papers, and on 28th April they ran from 9.15am to 11.30pm (BST)!
It was wonderful to see the incredible projects people are doing around the world to engage people in archaeology, particularly by Gavin Mackenzie and Kenneth Brophy with Team Build ‘n’ Burn.
.@urbanprehisto @gmacg_1 6 #PATC
Briefly Presencing A #Past
Through communal #labour
can we build possibilities for the #future ?
See https://t.co/cEkCairwZZ pic.twitter.com/MGYxqCPNDo
— BuildNBurn (@TeamBuildNBurn) April 28, 2017
I got fired up about the image problem archaeology has, thanks to a lack of diversity, most brilliantly expressed by Cath Poucher (plus she inspired me to use more gifs).
Archaeological sexism: Excavating the Cracks of a Broken Profession –
by Cath Poucher pic.twitter.com/oZT5qj15u1— Cath Poucher (@CathPoucher) April 28, 2017
I researched and presented my own paper, and I’ll let the tweets speak for themselves.
1. Hi, I’m talking about the representation of gender roles in children’s picture books set in European prehistory. #PATC #niche
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
2. KS2 teachers are using picture books (as well as non-fiction and chapter books) to support new prehistory topic in English schools #PATC
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
3. Nilsen (1971) IDd the ‘cult of the apron’. In reconstructions of prehistory it’s the ‘woman on hide’ (Gifford-Gonzalez 1993, 1995) #PATC pic.twitter.com/xvtaJtlda9
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
This image above is from Stone Age Boy from Satoshi Kitamura, so ‘woman on hide’ is alive and well in children’s picture books being used in schools today.
4. Only six books included in my study. Small sample, but teachers using them with 1000s of kids as first contact with prehistory #PATC pic.twitter.com/dnOEwozTDu
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
The books were Stone Age Boy by Satoshi Kitamura, The Wild Girl by Chris Wormell, Ug by Raymond Briggs (a book, by way of full disclosure, I absolutely hate btw), The First Drawing by Mordicai Gerstein, Stone Age Bone Age by Brita Granström and Mick Manning, and Cave Baby by Julia Donaldson and Emily Gravett.
5. Used system similar to Hamilton et al 2006 to code the books. Numbers of males and females, and what they were doing. #PATC
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
6. Results. Sex of main character: 3M, 1F, 2 ambiguous. The two ambiguous central characters allows the reader to decide, in theory. #PATC pic.twitter.com/4cArfDIbtB
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
This image above is of the central character in The First Drawing by Mordica Gerstein. Is it a boy or a girl? S/he is referred to in second person all the way through to encourage the reader to put themselves in their place whether boy or girl. But everyone I know who has read it (including my daughter of 7) thinks it’s a boy.
7. Results. Number of depictions of female characters: 193. Number of depictions of male characters: 434. #PATC pic.twitter.com/vSaQjpY9yu
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
8. Results. Not statistically significant but males more likely to be doing everything except gathering, cooking, making clothes #PATC pic.twitter.com/AOQM7jnSnq
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
9. Results. Interestingly, same numbers of men and women doing hide scraping and making fire. #win #PATC pic.twitter.com/EGnCdvU6bA
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
10. Disparity in visibility of women and depictions of who does the hunting in particular. But who did do the hunting? #evidence #PATC
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
11. Picture book writers/illustrators have been scrutinised for 40+ yrs and have made strides in the right direction, but more to do #PATC pic.twitter.com/P38ULon5Co
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
12. Would be good to expand the range, compare picture books from other countries, on later periods, and with chapter books. Fund me? #PATC pic.twitter.com/qBo6ltKkBO
— (((Kim Biddulph))) (@kimbiddulph) April 28, 2017
It was also great to get some feedback from other tweeps.
@kimbiddulph I’ve just done this educational Stone Age book ideal for schools with @dkbooks & women are represented in majority of the active roles #PATC pic.twitter.com/Snp9qVOzCs
— James Dilley (@ancientcraftUK) April 28, 2017
@kimbiddulph & then there’s me- PhD in archaeology & about to release a coloring book with an academic publisher [thx @acmrs_org !] #PATC
— Dayanna Knight (@DayannaKnight) April 28, 2017
@kimbiddulph After reading your paper, looking for some similar “for funsies” research I did on picture books in the past. Are you open to collaboration?
— Awkward Archy (@AwkwardArchy) April 28, 2017
And this couldn’t have been done without Lorna, obviously. I wholly support this tweet.
I nominate @lornarichardson 4 Archaeologist of the Decade. 1 of her initiatives is fabulous Archaeology Conf on Twiiter #PATC happening now
— Bob Muckle (@bobmuckle) April 28, 2017
The conference was, quite simply, incredible.
each dot is a #patc tweet https://t.co/cLKcfRPrym
— Shawn Graham (@electricarchaeo) April 28, 2017
kim biddulph 