The foundational taxonomy of the digital past — establishing the atomic units of memory, decay, and sovereign reconstruction.
Archaeobytology 101 forms the epistemic bedrock of the discipline. In accordance with open scholarship and forensic rigor, all papers in this series are perpetual working papers that develop as excavation techniques and platform architectures evolve. Version 2.0 deposits for The Archaeobyte (August 2026) and The Vivibyte (May 2026) are active on CERN Zenodo.
The atomic taxonomy established by Josie Jefferson & Felix Velasco, distinguishing bitstream survival from functional persistence.
A Foundational Thesis on the Artifacts of the Digital Past
Defines the atomic unit of digital archaeology and establishes the foundational triage methodology. Distinguishes tangible bitstreams from conceptual re-instantiations, articulating the crisis of context collapse.
Digital Life in the Danger Zone
Examines digital artifacts that have survived the platform dark ages with their native execution and cultural vitality intact—the “gold coins” whose substance remains spendable in the modern digital ecosystem.
Shadow Archives and Digital Ghosts
Classifies the liminal residue of deleted databases: orphaned caches, unindexed indexation logs, and broken image borders. The shadow data that reveals platform architecture through negative silhouette.
Fossilized Code and Monumental Stasis
Investigates fossilized codebases locked in binary stasis. Systems preserved like flies in amber, whose execution environments have perished while the static structure remains permanently monumentalized.
Digital Vacuums and the Architecture of Absence
Forensic study of intentional redaction, total platform purges, and structural absence. The null space where data was purposefully erased, revealing power dynamics and institutional censorship regimes.
Digital Cryptids and Unverified Legends
Analyzes digital mythologies, unverified software builds, vaporware, and apocryphal internet folklore. Artifacts documented solely through collective memory, user recollections, and speculative reconstruction.
A Foundational Paper on Digital Ontology, Taxonomy, and Applied Stewardship
The unifying treatise that formally establishes Archaeobytology as a recognized discipline. Synthesizes the six specimen classes into the Fourfold Triage, critiques the limits of media archaeology and digital forensics, and articulates the Archive-and-Anvil methodology.
The comprehensive 19-chapter curriculum on platform archaeology, sovereign systems, and epistemic stewardship.
Spanning 99,000+ words across five curriculum parts: Foundations, The Archive, The Anvil, Synthesis, and Sovereignty. Includes searchable chapter index, 5 appendices, and complete offline scroll reader.
The constructive discipline counterbalancing the Archive. Forging durable, sovereign alternatives to platform monopolies.
Practical excavation protocols, hex extraction techniques, bit-rot identification, and evidentiary provenance standards.
Step-by-step triage workflow from initial discovery through quarantine, checksum verification, and catalog entry.
Archaeobytology operates across two modes: the Archive (excavating and preserving what was lost) and the Anvil (forging sovereign infrastructure that endures).
Transparency is sovereignty's foundation. Users must know explicitly who owns and controls the infrastructure.
Portable identity prevents platform hostage-taking. Social graphs must survive corporate extinction.
Data must exist on infrastructure you control. Rent-seeking landlords cannot guarantee cultural rights.