From an Etruscan Town to Modern Technologies: New Advancements in the Caere Project

In 1997, within the framework of the research activity carried out by the Istituto per l'Archeologia Etrusco-Italica, a census of GIS applications in archaeology was promoted and then published in the ninth issue of the journal "Archeologia e Calcolatori". This international survey allowed us to collect significant methodological and technical information useful to outline the main guidelines of the "Caere Project", aimed at the establishment of an Archaeological Information System for the analysis of the Etruscan town and its surrounding territory. A recent update of this survey confirmed the previsions published four years ago by the members of an international Scientific Committee coordinated by François Djindjian. Some methodological aspects of the "Caere Project" are also discussed, with particular emphasis on the need of integrating many different computer techniques in order to gain a comprehensive, organic knowledge of the ancient landscape and town organisation. The results of the innovative use of markup languages and multimedia systems in the processing of archaeological excavation data are also presented. In fact, the methodological approach of the "Caere Project" is based on the principle that information is not sufficient if not linked by new forms of knowledge representation, which can promote an interactive consultation more than just a passive reading.