MicroPasts: A Crowdfuelled Research Project
MicroPasts logo
Power high quality research

Help us fuel the research of museums and heritage institutions

A collaborative opensource citizen science powered project, built on a partnership between volunteers and professionals

Creativity, open research, powered by you

What have we created with the crowd?

Bronze Age Sussex loop bracelet cradled in the palm of a hand wearing white gloves
Bronze Age Index

Our dedicated team of volunteers have transcribed over 30,000 index cards from the British Museum, enabling the creation of a searchable database of Bronze Age Metalwork in Britain.

An index card from the EES flickr stream
Egypt Exploration Society

The crowd enabled the Egypt Exploration Society to transcribe 1,000s of pages of their scanned archive, which is available on Flickr.

A screenshot of a model of a Bronze Age Sussex loop bracelet
3D models

Using the power of the crowd, we enabled large scale masking of photogrammetry images which were then used to create 3D models of the objects.

Featured project: Faces of Corbridge

Excavations at Corbridge between 1906 and 1914 uncovered the spectacular remains of the most northerly town in Roman Britain. The names of the lead excavators are well known, however much (if not all) of the hard graft of moving the tonnes of earth was carried out by local labourers. Unfortunately these men remain almost completely anonymous other than one or two names.

Photographs from the excavations show many of the faces and we would love to be able to identify these men. Putting names to these faces would add to our archive, and might also lead to further information about the work on site, as well as finally giving credit to those men who excavated this wonderful site.

Find more projects to participate in

Who we have worked with

Egypt Exploration Society Logo
Palestine Exploration Fund logo
Stirling University logo
British Museum logo
Reading University Logo
Oxford University logo
National Museum of Scotland logo
English Heritage logo
Denver Museum logo
Durham University Logo
Manchester University logo
Montpelier Archaeology logo
Historic Fort Snelling logo
Catholic University Americalogo
Society of Antiquaries Logo
Mary Rose Trust logo
Museo Egizio   logo
Fitzwilliam Museum logo
Scottish Political Archives logo
Who is currently behind this?

A group of archaeologists

Our team has been working together since 2013, you're welcome to join us...

Object image
Dr Chiara Bonnachi
University of Edinburgh
Object image
Dr Jennifer Wexler
English Heritage
Object image
Professor Daniel Pett
Westminster School
Object image
Professor Andy Bevan
University College London
Can we help you?

Maybe you have a project that needs some citizen science power?

Get in touch, we might be able to help you with advice, the use of our platform, our code or maybe some consultancy. We're always willing to chat, and open to new ideas and collaborations. Our project is funded by the core team, so funded research is a high priority.

Contact us by email

Institutional partners

UP