Curriculum & Master Textbook • Arch 200

Archaeobytology

The Study of Lost Digital Platforms and the Craft of Building Sovereign Alternatives

Josie Jefferson & Felix Velasco • Unearth Heritage Foundry • DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20364388

Start Reading Chapter 1 → Open Unified Reader Download Raw Markdown

Notice of Incompleteness & Disciplinary Status

This volume is an evolving pedagogical working draft and curricular outline, not a closed monument.

Archaeobytology is an emergent discipline whose taxonomy, methods, forensic tools, and artifact classes are being forged in real time as the commercial web degrades. The chapters, triage protocols, and institutional blueprints presented here represent the current state of curriculum development within the Unearth Heritage Foundry. They are published openly to establish the foundational lexicon, seed academic course syllabi, and invite collaborative critique from archivists, digital archaeologists, and sovereign infrastructure practitioners.

As digital platforms shutter, memory institutions adopt new custodial filters, and sovereign network architectures mature, this text will continue to evolve, expand, and be amended. It is a field manual under active excavation.

18 Core Chapters

5 Appendices & Toolkits

99,259 Total Words

Open Academic License

Curriculum at a Glance

The 18 chapters and pedagogical appendices organized into four thematic areas of inquiry.

Part I 6 sections

Theoretical Foundations & Taxonomy

Digital mortality, platform murder, and the sixfold classification of digital artifacts from Vivibyte to Cryptobyte.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Archaeobytology 19 min read
Chapter 2: The Archaeobyte Taxonomy 23 min read
Chapter 3: The Archive and the Anvil 23 min read
Chapter 4: The Three Pillars of Digital Sovereignty 24 min read
Chapter 5: Triage Methodology 24 min read
Chapter 6: Discipline Formation and Boundaries 22 min read

Part II 4 sections

Excavation Methods & Digital Forensics

Archaeological field methodologies, filesystem forensics, data recovery workflows, and the ethical custodial filter.

Chapter 7: Archaeological Methods for Digital Artifacts 19 min read
Chapter 8: Digital Forensics for Archaeobytologists 19 min read
Chapter 9: The Custodial Filter 24 min read
Chapter 10: Triage Workflow 24 min read

Part III 5 sections

Institutional Design, Commons & Political Economy

Building sustainable preservation trusts, economics of digital sovereignty, distributed seed banks, and memory institutions.

Chapter 11: Sustainable Preservation Organizations 21 min read
Chapter 12: The Economics of Sovereignty 20 min read
Chapter 13: Distributed Commons Governance 26 min read
Chapter 14: Memory Institutions for the Digital Age 24 min read
Chapter 15: The Political Economy of Digital Ground 22 min read

Part IV 3 sections

Disciplinary Movement & The Post-Platform Future

From practice to academic discipline, movement building, the role of the public intellectual, and forging the Third Way.

Chapter 16: From Practice to Discipline 24 min read
Chapter 17: The Public Intellectual in Archaeobytology 24 min read
Chapter 18: Forging the Third Way 22 min read

Apparatus 7 sections

Reference, Syllabi & Curricular Toolkit

Complete glossary, forensic tools, model syllabi, instructor resources, bibliography, and subject index.

Appendix A: Glossary of Terms 13 min read
Appendix B: Essential Tools & Resources 9 min read
Appendix C: Sample Syllabi & Curricular Models 5 min read
Appendix D: Teaching Resources 5 min read
Appendix E: Professional Resources for Archaeobytologists 4 min read
Bibliography: Bibliography & Works Cited 14 min read
Index: Subject & Concept Index 9 min read

Permanent Scholarly Citation

Archived on the CERN-backed Zenodo repository with permanent cryptographic DOI.

Copied!

Jefferson, J., & Velasco, F. (2025). Archaeobytology: The Complete Textbook — The Study of Lost Digital Platforms and the Craft of Building Sovereign Alternatives. Unearth Heritage Foundry. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20364388