Romans and Rollercoasters: Scholarship in the Digital Playground | Scholarly Publications Skip to main content Leiden University Scholarly Publications Home Submit About Select Collection All collections Faculty of Archaeology Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) Academic speeches Dissertations Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs Faculty of Humanities Faculty of Science Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences Leiden Journals, Conference Proceedings and Books Leiden Law School Leiden University Press Medicine / Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) Research output UL Search box Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/82688 Documents Download Text_IR_LEI Publisher's Version open access Full text at publishers site In Collections This item can be found in the following collections: Faculty of Archaeology Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) Politopoulos, A.; Ariese, C.; Boom, K.H.J.; Mol, A.A.A. (2019) Romans and Rollercoasters: Scholarship in the Digital Playground Article / Letter to editor Engagement with, or research and teaching driven by, play has long been only a minor aspect of archaeological scholarship. In recent years, however, spurred on by the continued success of interactive entertainment, digital play has grown from a niche field to a promising avenue for all types of archaeological scholarship (Champion 2011; Champion 2015; Mol et al. 2017a; Morgan 2016; Reinhard 2018). Firstly, this article provides an introduction on the intersection between play and scholarship, followed by a discussion on how ‘archaeogaming’ scholarship has been shaping and been shaped by its subject matter over the last years. Secondly, the scholarship that arises from digital play is further illustrated with a case study based on the RoMeincraft project developed by the authors. The latter, made use of Minecraft, the popular digital building game, to (re-)construct and discuss Roman heritage through collaborative play between archaeologists and... Show moreEngagement with, or research and teaching driven by, play has long been only a minor aspect of archaeological scholarship. In recent years, however, spurred on by the continued success of interactive entertainment, digital play has grown from a niche field to a promising avenue for all types of archaeological scholarship (Champion 2011; Champion 2015; Mol et al. 2017a; Morgan 2016; Reinhard 2018). Firstly, this article provides an introduction on the intersection between play and scholarship, followed by a discussion on how ‘archaeogaming’ scholarship has been shaping and been shaped by its subject matter over the last years. Secondly, the scholarship that arises from digital play is further illustrated with a case study based on the RoMeincraft project developed by the authors. The latter, made use of Minecraft, the popular digital building game, to (re-)construct and discuss Roman heritage through collaborative play between archaeologists and members of the public. Starting with in-game maps, sites such as forts, settlements, and infrastructural elements were rebuilt based on geological, archaeological, and historical information. These crowdsourced reconstructions, which not only relied on archaeological knowledge but also on a fair dose of creativity, took place in a series of educational public events in 2017–2019. The case study will detail the results of this project, as well as its methods, thus providing a practical example of digital scholarship which begins with discovery and ends in learning. The paper will conclude by reflecting on how the fun yet unpredictable dynamics of a digital playground not only shape public engagement with the past, but also open up unexpected avenues for more inclusive archaeological scholarship. Show less All authors Politopoulos, A.; Ariese, C.; Boom, K.H.J.; Mol, A.A.A. Date 2019 Journal Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology Volume 2 Issue 1 Pages 163–175 DOI doi:10.5334/jcaa.35 ©2020-2021 Leiden University A service provided by Leiden University Libraries Contact About us Recently Added Digital Collections Student Repository