ABSTRACT
This book presents the first International Symposium on virtual reality (VR), Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (VAST), which was held in 2000 and dealt, in a synthetic way, with issues deemed by the scientific community as acutely relevant to the field. Among the issues addressed by European Research Network of Excellence in Open Cultural Heritage (EPOCH) validity, reliability and standardization stand out - perhaps for the first time in the history of EU-funded technology projects - as particularly prominent. It is widely accepted that 3D visualization technology is a substantial aid in communicating cultural heritage, its potential as a research tool is not acknowledged in the same way. The development of accessible and user-friendly modelling systems would help disseminate 3D and VR technologies more widely and beyond the current emphasis on spectacular, photo-realistic and fast visualizations. 3D modelling involves a mediating process between archaeology and technology, that is the transformation of archaeological interpretation to visual reconstruction and ideas into virtual representation.
