Creative Interventions in Archaeology: Experiments in Facilitating Public Engagement with Archaeological Research in the UK

This thesis is an examination of creative engagements in public and community archaeology. Through the commissioning of a series of participatory creative workshops across archaeological sites in the UK, it explores the encounters that arose between archaeology, people, and creative practices throughout the process. The project utilises qualitative research methods to analyse the workshop events and data generated through semistructured research interviews. Using a grounded theory methodology, it analyses the experiences of members of the public and commissioned artists and demonstrates what creative archaeological approaches do for the people involved. Simultaneously, this research provides an exploration of the author’s own creative writing practice as it emerged as a methodology throughout the course of this project. This thesis reflects on this as a creative intervention within disciplinary practices and includes a small collection of this poetry work.