This case study presents the early stages of a deep mapping initiative in Charleston, South Carolina (USA). A foundational landscape for exploring the socioeconomic and political structures in the United States from the late 17th century to the present, the evidence for Charleston’s history is held in a variety of repositories, local and state agencies, and information curated by local communities and organizations. This rich resource mosaic creates an environment rich in information but complicated by varying levels of accessibility. The “Spatial History of Charleston” (SHOC) is a long-term mapping initiative that collates historical information about the Charleston area within a spatial and temporal framework. Within this endeavor lie interconnected issues related to scale, access, ownership, agency, and agenda. Employing a community-centered approach, SHOC seeks to navigate concerns about access, agency, ownership, and agenda, establishing a platform that increases access to data about and by communities, thereby democratizing information and facilitating integration and synthesis.

Archaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms. This can be done through hypermedia and deep mapping as approaches to public archaeology. In twenty-first-century archaeology, scholars can rely on vastly improved technologies to aid them in these efforts toward public engagement, including digital photography, geographic information systems, and three-dimensional models. These technologies, even when collected for analysis or documentation, can be valuable tools for educating and involving the public with archaeological methods and how these methods help archaeologists learn about the past. Ultimately, academic storytelling can benefit from making archaeological results and methods accessible and engaging for stakeholders and the general public. ArcGIS StoryMaps is an effective tool for integrating digital datasets into an accessible framework that is suitable for interactive public engagement. This article describes the benefits of using ArcGIS StoryMaps for hypermedia and deep mapping–based public engagement using the story of copper production in Iron Age Faynan, Jordan, as a case study.