Trowel Journal Blog
The Trowel Journal – a personal Blog
Trowel Journal is a personal blog aimed at sharing ideas and thoughts on archaeology, illustration, and scientific communication. The blog is structured using Markdown files for each post, allowing for seamless content creation and organisation. The platform enables discussions on ongoing projects, explores new ideas, and shares personal insights related to the field of archaeology. Trowel Journal started in October 2023 and is an ongoing project.
Challenges
The project faced several challenges, including:
- Balancing Professionalism with Personal Expression: The challenge lay in maintaining a tone that resonates with both professional archaeologists and general readers while sharing personal reflections on scientific topics.
- Content Management: Ensuring that the Markdown-based structure remained scalable and easy to manage as the volume of content grew. Markdown was chosen for its simplicity, but managing multiple posts and their associated metadata (tags, categories) required consistent organisation.
- Consistency in Updates: The blog aims to regularly publish new content, but maintaining a consistent posting schedule while balancing other professional projects posed an ongoing challenge.
Target Group & Pain Points
The service targets a variety of readers within archaeology and beyond:
- Archaeologists: Seeking accessible content on excavation techniques, digital tools, and workflows, without overly technical language or jargon.
- Illustrators: Looking for practical tips and insights on scientific illustration, particularly how these techniques apply to archaeological projects, while addressing the lack of specialised content.
- Science Communicators: Needing approachable methods for communicating complex topics in science and archaeology, without compromising on accuracy or appeal.
- General Public: Curious about archaeology and science communication, but finding it challenging to access engaging and understandable content in these often technical fields.
