(Part II) Cultural Heritage is an expression of the ways of living developed by a community and passed on from generation to generation, including customs, practices, places, objects, artistic expressions and values. It is often expressed as either Intangible or Tangible Cultural Heritage (ICOMOS, 2002). Archaeological Heritage can be understood as a complexity of activities with boundaries not really well-defined. Archaeologists, architects, scientists, hardware/software engineers and other scholars interact and learn from each other, even if they belong to different cultures, far removed in space or time. As a part of Cultural Heritage, Archaeology includes tangible and intangible heritage. For this reason, the new techniques of digital surveying and modelling allow us to capture heterogeneous data for the construction of models enabling the cognition and popularization of archaeology. These technologies have produced important methodological changes in those disciplines that concern the study, analysis, protection and management of archaeological elements. Any intervention dealing with Archaeological Heritage, regardless the scale of the object, triggers a customized System of Knowledge aiming at collecting, interpreting and archiving a great amount of information. Basically, the components of this system fall into one of four categories: historical, cultural, quantitative (derived from measurements acquired through surveying) and qualitative (its source lies in the interpretative capacities of the researcher and can be defined as an act of knowledge performed on the measured data). The techniques and instruments of digitalization have made possible a large-scale production of 3D objects belonging to archaeological heritage summarizing historical, quantitative and qualitative features. Nowadays digital technologies allow us to create an “open knowledge system” of virtual models to study, manage, document, preserve, evaluate and popularize archaeology linking the concept of representation to the concept of information and viceversa. In this framework, the session aims at presenting researches focused on the development of new digital technologies for 3D integrated survey, the creation of 2D and 3D content suitable for building a comprehensive multilayered model and multimedia products (i.e. animations and simulations) both for research and dissemination purposes. Contributions will discuss the use of integrated and multidisciplinary approaches in archaeology, use of digital data acquisition technologies, data processing and management. The focus will be on: • 2D and 3D data capture methodologies and data processing in archaeology; • construction of 2D/3D models; • integration of different technologies for the management of the optimization of the numerical and poligonal models; • ontologies and semantic processing in cultural heritage, data management; • archiving and communication of archaeology content; • development and exploitation of the innovative technologies; • innovative graphics applications and techniques; • diagnoses and monitoring for the preventive conservation and maintenance of archaeology; • information management systems in archaeology. The session aims at outlining theoretical foundations as a starting point for further debate about the changing approach to archaeological heritage.
