This appendix provides three sample syllabi for teaching Archaeobytology at different levels:
101 Level: Undergraduate survey course (Introduction to Archaeobytology)
200 Level: Intermediate undergraduate/early graduate (Digital Preservation Methods)
300 Level: Advanced graduate seminar (Building Sovereign Institutions)
Each syllabus is designed for a standard 15-week semester and can be adapted for quarter systems or intensive formats.
Course Level: Undergraduate
(100-level)
Credits:
3
Prerequisites:
None
Format: Lecture + Lab (2 hours lecture, 1 hour lab per
week)
What happens when digital platforms die? When GeoCities shut down in 2009, 30 million websites vanished overnight. When Vine closed in 2017, 200 million videos disappeared. This course introduces Archaeobytology—the study and practice of preserving murdered digital culture and building alternatives that resist future murders.
Students will learn to:
Classify digital artifacts using the Archaeobyte Taxonomy
Apply ethical triage frameworks (the Custodial Filter)
Understand the Archive/Anvil dual practice
Analyze digital sovereignty through the Three Pillars
Conduct basic digital preservation (web scraping, metadata creation)
No technical background required. Course combines theory, ethics, and hands-on practice.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Explain what Archaeobytology is and why it's needed as a distinct discipline
Classify digital artifacts as Archaeobyte, Vivibyte, Umbrabyte, or Petribyte
Apply the Custodial Filter to make ethical triage decisions
Evaluate platforms using the Three Pillars framework (Declaration, Connection, Ground)
Conduct basic web archiving using tools like Webrecorder
Analyze case studies of platform death and preservation efforts
Design a simple preservation project or sovereign alternative
This textbook: Archaeobytology: Digital Culture and the Art of Resistance (available open access at archaeobytology.org)
Doctorow, Cory. The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation. Verso, 2023.
Schneier, Bruce. Data and Goliath. W.W. Norton, 2015. (Selected chapters)
Kirschenbaum, Matthew. Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic Imagination. MIT Press, 2008.
Chun, Wendy Hui Kyong. Programmed Visions. MIT Press, 2011.
Topics:
Platform death, GeoCities case study, discipline
overview
Readings: Textbook Ch. 1
(Introduction)
Lab: Tour of Internet Archive's Wayback
Machine
Topics: Four categories of digital
mortality
Readings: Textbook Ch. 2
(Taxonomy)
Lab: Classify artifacts from your own digital
life
Assignment Due: Digital Life Audit (500 words)
Topics: Dual practice—preservation +
creation
Readings: Textbook Ch. 3
(Archive/Anvil)
Lab: Explore Archive Team's
projects
Topics: Declaration and
Connection
Readings: Textbook Ch. 4 (Three Pillars, first
half)
Lab: Set up a personal domain (optional hands-on)
Topics: Ground and sovereignty
audits
Readings: Textbook Ch. 4 (Three Pillars, second
half)
Lab: Conduct sovereignty audit of social
media
Assignment Due: Three Pillars Analysis (1,000
words)
Topics: Ethical decision-making in
preservation
Readings: Textbook Ch. 5
(Triage)
Lab: Triage simulation exercise
Topics: How Archaeobytology became a
field
Readings: Textbook Ch. 6 (Discipline
Formation)
Guest Speaker:
Practitioner from Internet Archive or Archive Team (if
available)
Format: Take-home essay exam (3 questions, choose 2)
Topics: Site reconnaissance, scraping,
APIs
Readings: Textbook Ch. 7 (Archaeological Methods, first
half)
Lab: Introduction to web scraping with wget
Topics: Metadata extraction, format
analysis
Readings: Textbook Ch. 7 (second half) + Ch. 8
(Forensics)
Lab: Analyze file metadata, examine dead
formats
Topics: GeoCities, Vine, Google Reader, Tumblr NSFW
purge
Readings: Selected case study articles
(provided)
Lab: Research a platform death of your
choice
Assignment Due: Case Study Presentation (10
minutes)
Topics: Internet Archive, Mastodon, cooperative
platforms
Readings:
Textbook Ch. 11-12 (excerpts on Archive and Anvil
institutions)
Lab: Explore Mastodon federation
Topics: Right to Archive, platform accountability
laws
Readings: Doctorow, The Internet
Con (selected chapters)
Lab: Draft model
legislation or policy brief
Topics: Post-platform future, movement
building
Readings: Textbook Ch. 18 (Forging the Third
Way)
Lab: Final project work session
Format: Students present final projects (10 min each + Q&A)
| Assignment | Weight | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Life Audit | 10% | Week 2 |
| Three Pillars Analysis | 15% | Week 5 |
| Midterm Exam | 20% | Week 8 |
| Case Study Presentation | 15% | Week 11 |
| Final Project | 30% | Week 15 |
| Lab Participation | 10% | Ongoing |
Final Project Options:
Preservation Project: Archive a small dying platform or personal website collection (with ethics statement)
Sovereignty Audit: Comprehensive analysis of a platform using Three Pillars + recommendations
Alternative Design: Propose a sovereign alternative to an existing platform (with business model)
Research Paper: Deep dive into a platform death case study (3,000 words)
Attendance: Lab sessions are mandatory. Miss more than 2 unexcused absences and your grade drops one letter.
Late Work: 10% penalty per day, up to 3 days. After that, no credit without prior arrangement.
Academic Integrity: Cite all sources. Plagiarism = automatic F. But: Collaborative work is encouraged in labs (just acknowledge your collaborators).
Accessibility: Accommodations available through Disability Services. Contact me in first two weeks.
Technology: You'll need a laptop for labs. Chromebooks okay for most exercises. Loaner laptops available if needed.
Course Level: Upper-level undergraduate / Early
graduate
Credits:
4
Prerequisites: ARCH 101 or permission of
instructor
Format: Seminar + Lab (2 hours seminar, 2 hours lab
per week)
This intermediate course focuses on the practical methods of digital preservation. Students will learn technical skills (web scraping, forensic recovery, emulation) alongside ethical frameworks (consent, triage, access policies).
By the end, students will be able to independently conduct a complete preservation project—from site reconnaissance through final archival delivery.
Conduct site reconnaissance and mapping of digital platforms
Execute web scraping using multiple tools (wget, HTTrack, Webrecorder, custom scripts)
Perform digital forensics (metadata extraction, format analysis, chain-of-custody)
Apply advanced triage using the Custodial Filter
Design metadata schemas for preserved collections
Implement access policies balancing openness and ethics
Complete a full preservation project with documentation
Textbook Chapters 7-10 (Excavation & Forensics section)
Owens, Trevor. The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation. Johns Hopkins, 2018.
Selected readings on web archiving methods (provided)
Laptop with admin access (for installing tools)
50GB free storage (for preservation exercises)
GitHub account (for submitting code/documentation)
Week 1: Review of taxonomy, Archive/Anvil, Three Pillars
Week 2: Deep dive on Custodial Filter with complex ethical cases
Lab: Triage war games (teams compete on difficult scenarios)
Week 3: Site reconnaissance, architecture assessment
Week 4: Static site scraping (wget, HTTrack)
Week 5: Dynamic sites (Selenium, Playwright, Webrecorder)
Lab: Scrape progressively harder sites each week
Assignment 1 Due (Week 5): Scraping portfolio (3 sites, documented methods)
Week 6: Metadata extraction, EXIF data, file signatures
Week 7: Format analysis, obsolete formats, emulation basics
Lab: Forensic analysis of provided artifact collection
Assignment 2 Due (Week 7): Forensic report on mystery artifacts
Format: 48-hour take-home "rescue mission"
Scenario: Platform announces shutdown in 72 hours
You have limited resources
Make triage decisions, execute scrape, document everything
Graded on: speed, coverage, ethics, documentation
Week 9: Metadata standards (Dublin Core, METS, PREMIS)
Week 10: Organizing collections, creating finding aids
Lab: Create metadata schema for your midterm collection
Week 11: Access models (open, restricted, tiered, embargoed)
Week 12: Privacy, consent, takedown policies
Lab: Design access policy for controversial content
Assignment 3 Due (Week 12): Ethics case study + access policy (2,000 words)
Week 13: Project proposals (pitch to class for feedback)
Week 14: Work session + mid-project check-ins
Week 15: Final presentations + archive delivery
| Assignment | Weight | Due Date |
|---|---|---|
| Scraping Portfolio | 15% | Week 5 |
| Forensic Report | 15% | Week 7 |
| Midterm Rescue Simulation | 20% | Week 8 |
| Ethics Case Study | 15% | Week 12 |
| Final Preservation Project | 30% | Week 15 |
| Lab Participation + Peer Review | 5% | Ongoing |
Final Project Requirements:
Identify endangered platform or content collection
Conduct full preservation workflow (recon → scrape → metadata → access)
Deliver: Archive files + documentation + ethics statement
Minimum 100 artifacts or 1GB data
Must address ethics explicitly (consent, privacy, harm)
Course Level: Graduate
seminar
Credits:
4
Prerequisites: ARCH 200 or significant preservation
experience
Format: Seminar (3 hours per week)
How do we build institutions that survive 50 years? This advanced seminar focuses on institutional design—creating organizations, platforms, and movements that embody digital sovereignty while resisting capture, collapse, or co-optation.
Students will analyze successful and failed institutions (Internet Archive, Mastodon, ENS, failed platforms), apply governance theory (Ostrom, Benkler), and design complete institutional systems as final projects.
This is a capstone course—expect to produce graduate-level work suitable for publication or real-world implementation.
Analyze institutional failure modes (heroic founder, platform landlord, volunteer burnout, speculative capture, complexity collapse)
Apply Ostrom's 8 principles to digital commons governance
Design sustainable business models for sovereignty (avoiding surveillance capitalism)
Develop 10-20 year movement-building strategies
Create complete institutional prospectus (governance, funding, technical architecture, risk mitigation)
Critique existing institutions through Archaeobytological frameworks
Textbook Chapters 11-16 (Institution Building + Systems & Movements)
Ostrom, Elinor. Governing the Commons. Cambridge, 1990.
Benkler, Yochai. The Wealth of Networks. Yale, 2006.
Doctorow, Cory. The Internet Con. Verso, 2023.
Schneier, Bruce. Click Here to Kill Everybody. W.W. Norton, 2018.
Week 1: The Institutional Void
Reading: Textbook Ch. 11 (Sustainable Archives), Module 0 (Institutional Void)
Case: Why did Google Reader die? Why did Delicious almost die?
Assignment: Diagnose one failed platform using 5 failure modes
Week 2: The Business of the Archive
Reading: Textbook Ch. 11 + Internet Archive case study
Case: Internet Archive's 30-year sustainability
Guest Speaker: IA staff member (if possible)
Week 3: The Economics of the Anvil
Reading: Textbook Ch. 12 (Economics of Sovereignty)
Cases: Basecamp, Ghost, WordPress
Assignment: Business model analysis (choose 1 platform, evaluate sustainability)
Week 4: Ostrom's 8 Principles
Reading: Ostrom, Governing the Commons (Ch. 3-4)
Case: LOCKSS network (applying Ostrom to digital preservation)
Week 5: Distributed Commons Governance
Reading: Textbook Ch. 13 (Seed Bank)
Cases: Mastodon federation, IPFS, BitTorrent
Assignment: Apply Ostrom's principles to Mastodon (critique)
Week 6: Memory Institutions
Reading: Textbook Ch. 14 (Haunted Forest)
Cases: Strong Museum of Play, 9/11 Digital Archive, GeoCities Archive
Field trip: Local museum or archive (if feasible)
Week 7: The Sovereignty Stack
Reading: Textbook Ch. 15 (Political Economy of Ground)
Cases: DNS/ICANN, ENS, Tor
Assignment: Redesign one layer of the stack (proposal)
Week 8: Protocol Wars
Reading: Lessig, Code 2.0 (selected chapters) + ActivityPub docs
Cases: Email (success), XMPP (failure), ActivityPub (ongoing)
Discussion: Why do some protocols win and others lose?
Week 9: Midterm — Institutional Autopsy
Each student presents 15-minute "institutional autopsy" of one failed platform
Must apply: failure modes, Ostrom principles, Three Pillars, sovereignty analysis
Peer critique + revision for written version
Week 10: From Practice to Discipline
Reading: Textbook Ch. 16 (Movement Building)
Cases: Digital Humanities (40 years), Data Science (10 years), STS (40 years)
Assignment: Draft 10-year movement strategy for Archaeobytology
Week 11: Public Intellectual Toolkit
Reading: Textbook Ch. 17 (Public Intellectual)
Cases: Cory Doctorow, Safiya Noble, Brewster Kahle
Workshop: Write an op-ed or policy brief (800 words)
Week 12: Policy and Advocacy
Reading: Selected policy papers (Right to Archive, Platform Accountability Act, etc.)
Guest: Policy advocate or lobbyist
Assignment: Draft model legislation or testimony
Week 13: Project Proposals
Each student presents 20-minute capstone proposal
Three options: (A) Platform Alternative, (B) Institutional Infrastructure, (C) Movement + Policy Package
Peer feedback + instructor approval
Week 14: Work Session
Open studio format
One-on-one consultations
Mid-project check-ins
Week 15: Final Presentations
30-minute presentation + 15-minute Q&A per student
Panel of outside reviewers (faculty + practitioners)
| Assignment | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Response Papers | 20% | 500 words each, due before seminar |
| Institutional Autopsy | 20% | Midterm analysis of failed platform |
| Module Exercises | 20% | Business model, Ostrom analysis, op-ed, etc. |
| Capstone Project | 40% | Final institutional design + presentation |
Capstone Project Deliverables:
Written Document (6,000-8,000 words): System design, governance, funding, movement strategy, ethics, risk analysis
Visual Presentation (20-30 slides): Pitch to potential funders/partners
Prototype or Artifact: Technical demo, policy brief, or institutional prospectus
Evaluation Criteria:
Problem diagnosis (20%): Uses frameworks from course
System design (30%): Technical + governance feasibility
Three Pillars integrity (20%): Embodies sovereignty
Originality (15%): Novel contribution
Presentation (15%): Clear, persuasive communication
Seminar Expectations: This is a discussion-based seminar. Come prepared to talk. Read everything before class. Silence = grade penalty.
Peer Review: You'll review 2 classmates' capstone proposals and drafts. Thoughtful critique is part of your grade.
Public Scholarship: With permission, we'll publish strong capstone projects as working papers or op-eds. This is a real-world course.
Collaboration: Encouraged for capstone (teams of 2-3 allowed). But each person must have distinct role.
Compress each syllabus by ~30%
Combine related weeks (e.g., Weeks 4+5 → one week)
Reduce number of assignments (pick most essential)
Consider flipped classroom (lectures as videos, class time for discussion/labs)
Focus on hands-on skills (excavation, triage)
Less theory, more practice
Daily labs with real platforms
Final project completed during course (not take-home)
Labs can be asynchronous (students work on own time, submit videos/documentation)
Use Discord or Slack for ongoing discussion
Guest speakers via Zoom (actually easier to schedule)
Peer review via shared documents
Strip out academic readings, focus on practitioner case studies
Emphasize tools and workflows
Certificate upon completion
2-day intensive format possible for 101-level content
Course Websites:
Create landing page with syllabus, readings, assignment templates
archaeobytology.org can host course materials
Use GitHub for student submissions (teaches version control)
Guest Speakers:
Brewster Kahle (Internet Archive founder)
Jason Scott (Archive Team)
Eugen Rochko (Mastodon creator)
Academic Archaeobytologists (see Appendix E for directory)
Field Trips:
Local museums with digital collections
University archives
Data centers (if you have connections)
Maker spaces / digital humanities labs
Assessment Rubrics:
Detailed rubrics for each assignment available in the comprehensive Instructor's Guide
Adapt to your institution's learning outcomes
Teaching Philosophy: Archaeobytology courses should balance:
Theory (why this matters)
Practice (how to do it)
Ethics (when not to do it)
Action (go build something)
The goal is not just to teach about Archaeobytology, but to train people who do Archaeobytology.
End of Appendix C