“E.T. Phone Home”, or: from the landfill to the museum: intersections Between Archaeology and Media Archaeology

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the possibilities of intersection between archaeology – as a discipline, as a field – and media archaeology, taking as a case study the excavation of the Atari cartridges held in Alamogordo, New Mexico, on April 2014. It points to how the conjunction of these two archaeologies can provide new (and alternative) historical narratives to “facts” crystallized by time and often accepted as unquestionable truths; in this case, the idea – spread for more than three decades – that the Atari 2600 E.T. video game would have been the main accountable for the North American 1983 video game market crash. It concludes that the joint work between archaeology and media archaeology opens possibilities for new understandings about cultural, social, and economic aspects concerning certain media phenomena.

Keywords: Archaeology. Media. Video games. Atari. E.T..