ABSTRACT
The advances in digital technologies and consequent rise of informational interactivity and visuality have affected many disciplines including cultural heritage studies. The initial signs of these changes were visible in the early 1980s when the Roman Baths were digitally modelled in three dimensions as part of archaeological studies. Since then ever more complex and ambitious virtual heritage projects have followed, targeting different cultures, continents, and time spans. These projects range from virtual reconstructions of the Dunhuang caves and the Xian terracotta soldiers in China, to the Indus Valley cities of Harappa and the Mughal city of Fatehpur Sikri in India, the Egyptian pyramids and temples, the Mesopotamian stone tablets and palaces, the Greek agoras, the Roman forums and theatres, the Mayan and Aztec cities, the European cathedrals and the temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and many other projects (Barcelo et al. 2000; Addison 2001; Moltenbrey 2001; Fisher and Unwin 2002).
