Archaeology of the Internet

The website of an advertising company called Story Worldwide describes an interesting project called “Digital Archaeology.” This was an exhibition of websites that “many consider to be the most significant sites of their time, each pushing the boundaries of how we play, interact and are entranced by technology.” Each website was shown on the original computers and browsers of its time, a neat way to transport the viewer back in time to the early days of the internet when these “artifacts” were first made and used. One of the main goals of the project was to encourage the archiving of important early websites as cultural resources, just like ancient artifacts are considered cultural resources to be preserved for future knowledge today. This is a neat project and it makes you think about what kinds of questions future generations of archaeologists will be asking about our time, and what kinds of materials, digital and physical, they will consider important finds.