This exercise is best suited to those with an interest in the archaeology of Spanish Florida, stakeholders at archaeological sites, or using role-playing games for archaeological education. Users should know how to use the internet for research and interacting with digital documents like PDFs and be prepared to respectively represent the perspectives of others but previous experience with archaeology or role-play is not required.
This page provides access to the resource in two ways. The first is through a series of digital documents that represent the complete Digital Data Story. These include the following:
- Teaching Guide
- Host Guide
- Host Character Script with recording links
- Folder of character scripts
- Discussion Guide
A single-PDF for the combined Digital Data Story materials is available here. These materials are also available through the Digital Data Stories code repository on Codeberg as secondary access. The R markdown files on Codeberg provide the text and some images from the electronic documents, minus additional formatting and only general image placement for select images. The R markdown files may be altered and forked from the repository for custom use with the original or your own set of characters. To accurately recreate the dynamic documents for A Glorious Mystery, specifically the character scripts, users should download a copy of the character table (available in the folder of character scripts and on Codeberg) alongside the code to pull the correct materials. This code represents our commitment to open science, data literacy, and transparency in our process.
These materials, either through the single-PDF publication of record, dynamic digital documents, or the code, are designed to be used synergistically. However, any piece of this Digital Data Story may be used separately or re-ordered according to the requirements of the user or according to specific educational goals. A Glorious Mystery is available, free to use, under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, with other licenses as noted for specific images or materials within the resource. In addition, this Digital Data Story references our other open educational resources Cow-culating Your Data with Spreadsheets and R (CC BY), Of Mycenaean Men (CC BY), and It’s All in the Wrist (Bones) (CC BY).
Thank you so much for using our educational resources! Although this Digital Data Story is published, if you or your participants have the time, please consider contributing an open peer review for our ongoing review process. We are especially interested in feedback from descendant community members and welcome anyone from the descendant communities portrayed in this resource to provide feedback while we continue soliciting additional reviews. Updates from such feedback will be noted below and first available through the digital documents and Codeberg repository prior to PDF updating.
To attribute this Digital Data Story or any of its parts, please use our suggested citation:
Paulina F. Przystupa and L. Meghan Dennis, 2025, “A Glorious Mystery: Rosaries and Robbery”, Data Stories Program, Alexandria Archive Institute / Open Context, Published Online, DOI: https://doi.org/10.6078/M70863FG.
Preprint page published: August 2025
Updated: August and September 2026 – This Digital Data Story completed peer review in 2025 and, after revision, is now published. Major updates included changes to the text of the host guide, discussion guide, and player guides to stress the value of mindful preparation time and the duty of care that the facilitator and players have; additional language regarding how to provide equitable and safe role-play spaces; updates to the PDF export process to improve image quality; and character rewrites to ensure that all characters are fun to play. There are other edits captured by the Codeberg histories and by comparison with Version 1.0, which is archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16995697. There was also a textual revision to this page in October 2026.
Image credit: “A Glorious Mystery Header” by Paulina F. Przystupa from the Data Literacy Program (DLP) / CC BY is a modified version of “Old Spanish Mission, New Smyrna, Fla.” (https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-a3c8-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99) by the Detroit Publishing Company from The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, courtesy of The New York Public Library, www.nypl.org, and determined to be in the public domain.
