The new trend of 3D archaeology is … going 2D!

Nowadays we cannot imagine any archaeological activity – fieldwork, lab work or historical analysis and synthesis – without the support of information technologies. 3D is an important part of this scenario, considering that archaeology is a reality composed of 3D entities that have to be analysed, understood and reconstructed. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that the 3D reconstruction of monuments and sites is one of the most important applications of IT to archaeology, given its ability to recreate, in a perfect and realistic form, something that no longer exists with a strong visual impact. But what if we move our aim from visua- lisation techniques to content? If we focus on communication aspects, we need to consider the fact that 3D may not always be the right solution: if our goal is to make the real meaning of archaeology fully understandable to a wider audience we need something more: we need a story.