Welcome to the excavation at Decolonium.
You are a PhD Candidate within the Archaeology Department at University College Camford (UCC) participating in the excavation as part of your research.
The excavation is led by your Head of Department, ''Professor Montague'', an antiquarian with a penchant for tweed jackets.
[[Continue->The Discovery]]You discover a burial site during the excavation.
You call over ''Professor Montague'' to show them what you have found.
''Professor Montague'' says //"This is clearly the burial of a Roman child of Italian descent. The carved stone horse shows this was a male child and the pottery is a cooking pot used to feed him. There's an injury to his ribs. This is clearly a case of infanticide."//
Do you:
[[Choose to accept Professor Montague's interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]
[[Choose to look more closely at the burial?->List of Objects]]You accept the interpretation, and tell Professor Montague how lucky you feel to be working on a site with such a renowned expert. Professor Montague is very happy with you. You move on to the next artefact at the burial site.
[[Return to the burial.->List of Objects]]
[[If you have excavated the whole site, go to Professor Montague’s lecture.->Professor Montague's Lecture]]
You take a further look at the burial, and see the following evidence:
* [[Pollen samples->Pollen Samples]]
* [[Animal bone->Animal Bone]]
* [[Sandal]]
* [[Small human remains]]
* [[Pottery sherds->Pottery Shards]]
* [[Ritual object->Ritual Object]](if:$Pottery is true)[
You remember that the pottery has an origin in North Africa and are curious whether the small human is also from North Africa.
Do you:]
(else:)[
You are curious about the bones and decide to do osteological analysis on the bones. The pathology shows a healed injury to the ribs, whilst morphological analysis suggests a child of North African ancestry.
Professor Montague disagrees with the results of the survey and says you are wasting time.
Do you:
[[Accept Professor Montague's interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]]
[[Conduct DNA analysis?->DNA Analysis]]
[[Return to burial site?->List of Objects]](if:$DNA is true)[
You remember your friend is a specialist in North African pottery, currently researching head pottery.]
(else:)[
You take a look at the pottery and notice what appears to be an eye on the sherd buried in the ground next to the rest of the sherds.
It reminds you of North African head pottery that your friend is doing their research on.]
Do you:
[[Ignore your instincts and just follow Professor Montague's interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]
[[Take the pottery sherds to your friend to see if your suspicions are correct?->Pottery Analysis]]Professor Montague says “<i>This is obviously an object of ritual significance. It must have represented something to the child.</i>”
You think it looks more like something you saw in an undergraduate lecture about historical medicine.
Do you:
[[Accept Professor Montague’s interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]
[[Go back to your old notes?->Old Notes]]
You are curious about the origin of the pollen
You give the pollen to a specialist to take back to their lab.
The specialist tells you that this suggests it is a native farm site.
Professor Montague tells you to stop wasting time and money, reminding you that the site is: //"clearly the burial of a Roman child of Italian descent. The carved stone horse shows this was a male child and the pottery is a cooking pot used to feed him. There's an injury to his ribs. This is clearly a case of infanticide."//
Do you:
[[Accept Professor Montague's interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]
[[Return to burial?->List of Objects]] You look at the animal bone and realise it's a mixture of cattle and sheep/goat.
Professor Montague tells you to stop wasting time, reminding you: //"This is clearly the burial of a Roman child of Italian descent. The carved stone horse shows this was a male child and the pottery is a cooking pot used to feed him. There's an injury to his ribs. This is clearly a case of infanticide."//
Do you:
[[Accept Professor Montague's interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]
[[Return to the burial?->List of Objects]] You take a closer look at the sandal and realise it is small, about the size that that a child might wear.
Professor Montague sees you looking at the sandal and says //"Look, I told you so. This is clearly a Roman child burial, and the size of the sandal shows that I'm right!"//
Do you:
[[Agree with Professor Montague's interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]
[[Go back to the burial?->List of Objects]](set: $Pottery to true)
You show the pottery sherd to your friend.
They compare the sherds you found with previous example and they say it's the same style as an example found at Arbeia.
[[You decide to publish the results of the pottery analysis.->Publish Pottery]]
</style
<img src=http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/zoom-image.php?img=1YORYM_H2132-smaller.jpg>
</div>You look back through your old notes, and find a reference to Dr. Smith talking about the use of levers to move fractured bones. The illustration of a bone lever closely matches the shape of your object.
You show it to Professor Montague, who says “<i>Dr. Smith? She doesn’t know what she’s talking about! They didn’t have advanced medicine in Roman Britain.</i>”
Do you:
[[Accept Professor Montague’s interpretation?->Wise Professor Montague]]
[[Contact Dr. Smith?->Contacting Dr. Smith]]
(set: $Ritual to true)
You decide to email a photo of the artefact to Dr. Smith and ask what she thinks. She agrees with your identification and tells you that it’s a very unusual find for a site like Decolonium, and she’d like to do some research on it.
[[Wait for Dr. Smith to finish her research->Not Quite Ritual]]
[[Ignore Dr. Smith and just follow Professor Montague's interpretation->Wise Professor Montague]] “<i>This site matched all my expectations!</i>” announced Professor Montague. “<i>The burial of a Roman boy of Italian descent, a victim of infanticide who was buried with his favourite sandals and cooking pot.</i>”
Lots of people in the audience are nodding, but that doesn’t sound quite right to you.
Do you:
[[Take another look at the evidence?->List of Objects]]
[[Go to the pub with Professor Montague and students?->The Pub]]The results of the DNA analysis suggest that the skeleton is biologically male. Professor Montague is vindicated and tells you to abandon your analysis and come back to the site.
Do you
[[Accept Professor Montague was right and return to the site?->List of Objects]]
[[Accept Professor Montague was right but decide to keep digging?->More DNA]]“<i>Well, of course, I knew what it was from the moment we first saw the remains. I’m looking forward to the exhibition opening next week.</i>”
Professor Montague is holding court in the pub, lecturing to an enraptured group of undergraduates. You notice that there is no mention of any of the other people who worked on the site, including a number of students who volunteered their time for free. You sip your drink uncomfortably.
[[You realise that you may have been too hasty in your decision. Return to the site.->The Discovery]]
[[Go to the exhibition.->Exhibition]]You go to the museum and see Professor Montague’s interpretation printed on a wall panel.
A parent reads it out to their child and says “<i>Isn’t that interesting?</i>”
Do you:
[[Accept Professor Montague's interpretation is now truth?->Colonialism in action]]
[[Go back to the burial site?->List of Objects]]Congratulations! You are perpetuating (text-colour:red)[(text-style:"emboss")[colonial theory]] in archaeology. Go back, educate yourself, and try again.
[[Go back to the site.->Welcome to Decolonium]]
[[Read more about decolonisation and Roman archaeology.->LIST OF RESOURCES]]Congratulations! You receive an email notification that your work will be published in Roman Pottery Today. Even Reviewer 2 says your work is outstanding and original.
Do you:
[[Accept the recognition but keep investigating and deepen your knowledge of the site?->List of Objects]]
[[Accept this esteemed recognition and move on to a different excavation at Postcolonium?->Decolonisation is Hard Work]]
(if:$Pottery and $DNA and $Ritual is true)[[You receive a letter in the post...->Best Archaeologist in the Universe]]
You’ve made a start on decolonising historical narratives in Roman archaeology, but it’s hard work and many people are resisting your findings and attempts to make change. Do you have the courage to keep trying?
Do you:
[[Keep doing the work?->Keep Going]]
[[Give up and go to the pub with Professor Montague?->Colonialism in action]]
Congratulations! You are doing the hard work of decolonising your research, but there is still much more to do. Keep going!
[[Read more about decolonisation and Roman archaeology.->LIST OF RESOURCES]]You and Dr. Smith appear on the BBC documentary “Not Quite Ritual” to discuss the Roman bone lever. You use your platform to acknowledge the work of the other staff on site, including the student volunteers, telling the interviewer that this discovery was a collective effort.
Professor Montague refuses to watch it, dismissing it as “populist drivel”.
Do you:
[[Accept the recognition but keep investigating and deepen your knowledge of the site?->List of Objects]]
[[Accept this esteemed recognition and move on to a different excavation at Postcolonium?->Decolonisation is Hard Work]]
(if:$Pottery and $DNA and $Ritual is true)[[You receive a letter in the post...->Best Archaeologist in the Universe]]You present your work at the prestigious Double Helix Discussions conference and receive great praise.
Do you:
[[Accept the recognition but keep investigating and deepen your knowledge of the site?->List of Objects]]
[[Accept this esteemed recognition and move on to a different excavation at Postcolonium?->Decolonisation is Hard Work]]
(if:$Pottery and $DNA and $Ritual is true)[[You receive a letter in the post...->Best Archaeologist in the Universe]](set: $DNA to true)
Further analysis shows that 50% of the child’s DNA is from North Africa, 25% is Western European, and 25% is unknown. This causes great excitement in the lab and increases interest in the site of Decolonium, whilst directly contradicting Professor Montague’s identification of the child as being from Italy.
[[You submit a paper about your discoveries to the biggest DNA conference in the UK.->Double Helix Discussions]]You are widely praised for your monograph “Digging Dirt at Decolonium”, despite Professor Montague’s scathing review, and are unanimously appointed “Best Archaeologist in the Universe” by the Universal Funding Gods (UFG). You are announced as the new Head of Department at University College Camford at Professor Montague’s retirement party, where she insists that she can’t wait to retire and focus on writing her biography of Haverfield and looking after her peacocks.
[[Accept your praise and rest on your laurels as Head of Department.->Colonialism in action]]
[[Keep trying to decolonise your work.->Keep Going]]<a href="https://study.soas.ac.uk/decolonising-history-a-students-perspective/"> Decolonising History: A Student's Perspective </a>
<a href="http://trac.org.uk"> Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference </a>
<a href="https://theblackcurriculum.com"> The Black Curriculum </a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/ESBAArchaeology"> The European Society of Black and Allied Archaeologists </a>
<a href="https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/diaspora_ahrc_2011/"> A Long Way From Home: Diaspora Communities in Roman Britain </a>
Thanks for broadening your knowledge and helping to decolonise the study of archaeology and history!