A GIS solution for Excavations: Experience of the Siena University LIAAM

It is our intention to present the experience accumulated in the last decade by LIAAM at the Department of Archaeology and Art History-University of Siena, Italy. During these years we specialised in developing solutions managing every kind of information produced by an archaeological project. We work on different scales (from regional surveys down to detailed records of all the finds). All the data is administered within a system in made up of three components: different GIS platforms, an alphanumerical database and a media database; these are linked by a system level application called OpenArcheo, directly engineered and developed at our Laboratory. The basic concepts of our system are the multidirectional links between information types (which allow the user to query and retrieve all the information related to a feature starting from any of the components mentioned above), modular organisation of architecture in order to implement the ever changing variables and detail levels of archaeological research that suit the specific needs of every single project, and of course, user-friendliness making the management of complex data possible to anyone who has a basic knowledge in the use of computers. In short, what we try to do is optimise the management of information produced by archaeological projects and allow the archaeologist to have all the different kinds of data at hand in real time. Such a system fits perfectly with the application of landscape and intrasite spatial and statistical analysis tools, allowing us to build predictive models of landscapes and settlements, orientating every campaign of our projects and providing simulations of the parts we cannot investigate. We also take particular care in editing our web pages (our web-site is made up of more than 1000 pages constantly updated, and it also provides a portal with more than 7000 links; http://www.archeo.unisi.it/archeologia_medievale/welcome.html), 3D modelling and hypermedia production, in order to spread the information we produce to the widest range of people.