Museological Approaches to the Management of Digital Research and Engagement: The African Rock Art Image Project

Abstract

The African Rock Art Image Project at the British Museum has documented and disseminated c. 24,000 digital images of rock art from throughout the continent, donated by the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA). The images were registered into the British Museum’s permanent collection and treated as objects in their own right, not just digital reproductions of objects. As a wholly born-digital collection, this led to several opportunities and challenges for documentation, dissemination, and digital humanities outputs, including a fully searchable database, social media, website, 3D modelling and printing, and virtual reality, to name a few. Increasingly, digital technologies are being used in standard archaeological research and practice. From digital photography to larger 3D modelling/scanning, the volume of data being created by archaeologists is increasing exponentially, as is the potential for these outputs to change research and community engagement. But with the massive amounts of data being created, are researchers documenting and disseminating their data to their full potential? Here, traditional museum practices of cataloguing, storing, and public engagement can inform archaeological practice to use these data collections for both scholarly research and community engagement. Through a critically reflective description of the work and challenges of the project, this paper argues that there are significant benefits to be gained by engaging digital rock art projects with established museum thinking and practice.