Rapid Archaeology of Human Constructions Within Interactive Digital Built Environments: A Preliminary Assessment

Software is an architectural outcome of human labor which today houses the collective creative output of billions of people. Video games are a subset of software; they enable users to create their own built environments within a digital framework which can be shared with others for enjoyment, but these are later subject to abandonment and destruction. These digital constructions in synthetic, ephemeral spaces provide a unique challenge to archaeologists: how to document, preserve, and analyze archaeological evidence of human occupation of digital spaces, especially when that period of occupation can last mere minutes and can vanish from the digital landscape without a trace.