Digital excavation and the new skills for archaeologists in Delta Project

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education provision at anunprecedented scale. The impact of limited use of digital educational tools & skillsbecame more apparent during the pandemic, which created serious problems inconducting face-to-face excavation training in both classroom and excavation site.Within this context, the integration of these two physical spaces through the digital"space" of online training is the main objective of project DELTA (Digital Excavationthrough Learning and Training in Archaeology), a transnational project funded in thecontext of Erasmus+/KA2 EU programme (2019-2022) with the coordination of theHellenic Open University (DAISSy research group) and participants the relevantdepartments of archaeology of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece),University of Basilicata (Matera, Italy), and Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic).The results of the first phase of the project included desk research aiming at recordingthe existing situation in the 3 countries concerning: the use of digital applications inarchaeological excavations, the courses on excavation practices, methods/techniques,and the use of digital educational tools.The survey recorded the most recent trends in the university curricula, existing digitalskills and level of expertise of students - professionals, their needs & desires concerningPage 1 of 2the use of digital applications in excavation and archaeological education. The resultsproved to be particularly revealing, especially when comparing the situation between thethree countries. DELTA project aimed to design & develop a course through which,students of Archaeology were able to improve their knowledge and develop digital and21st century skills. The online piloting allowed participating Universities to discuss thelevel of integration of digital applications, tools and methods in teaching and learning inArchaeology online, necessary digital skills & make suggestions for the future.Particularly within the context of the recent pandemic and the problems it created instudents' excavation training.