Open Access Journal: Archeologia e Calcolatori

The first issue of Archeologia e Calcolatori was published in 1990 on the initiative of the Istituto per l'Archeologia Etrusco-Italica (now Istituto di Studi sulle civiltà italiche e del Mediterraneo antico) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), together with the Dipartimento di Archeologia e Storia delle Arti of the University of Siena. Edizioni All'Insegna del Giglio in Florence were chosen as the publishers because of their long-established experience in the publication of journals and books relating to archaeology.

The stimulus to establish a new journal came from an analysis of this field of studies in Italy. In fact, whilst growing interest and various applications allowed for the recognition of the positive introduction of computers in archaeology, the obvious need emerged to create a stable point of reference, in order to collect projects and diffuse the results of Italian research internationally.

Such a publication had been lacking up till then. As a result, the journal was established with the idea of publishing in a homogeneous and systematical way the results of computer research carried out in the field of historical archaeology, offering an up-to-date edition of projects in progress both in Italy and abroad: thus, the way was paved for new developments in computer application.

Index by Year

1990		1991		1992		1993		1994
1995		1996		1997		1998		1999
2000		2001		2002		2003		2004
2005		2006		2007		2008		2009
2010		2011

Supplements

P. Cignoni, S. Palombini, S. Pescarin (eds.), ARCHEOFOSS Open Source, Free Software e Open Format nei processi di ricerca archeologica. Atti del IV Workshop (Roma, 27-28 aprile 2009), ("Archeologia e Calcolatori" , Supplemento 2, 2009).

The second Supplement to “Archeologia e Calcolatori” is dedicated to the publication of the Proceedings of the 4th Workshop “ARCHEOFOSS Open Source, Free Software e Open Format nei processi di ricerca archeologica”, which was organised in April 2009 in Rome, at the Italian National Research Council, under the auspices of the Cultural Heritage Department.

This is an annual meeting, unique both in the national and in the international panorama, which deals with a specific theme of current interest in the field of archaeological computing: promote the use of open source software and open standards in order to facilitate data sharing in archaeology. The volume is subdivided in four main thematic sections: Open Process, Open Data, Open Software and Open Learning, which constitute the basic concepts of the Open Archaeology movement.

P. Moscati (ed.), Virtual Museums and Archaeology ("Archeologia e Calcolatori" , Supplemento 1, 2007).

This is the first time, in the twenty-year history of “Archeologia e Calcolatori”, that a thematic issue is published as a Supplement to the journal. However, the idea for this issue is not a new one, but it recalls other initiatives in which “Archeologia e Calcolatori” has operated in close collaboration with the Italian National Research Council to promote the sector of computing and archaeology and its innovative applications.

The “virtual experience”, with all its implications of knowledge enhancement and sharing, has involved numerous CNR researchers, through an interdisciplinary approach, which has characterised and given consistency to the applications also from a theoretical and methodological point of view. In addition to the projects which are specifically dedicated to archaeology (virtual museums and 3D visualisation of ancient landscapes, towns, grave goods and objects), the contributions describe sophisticated computer tools designed and implemented in CNR laboratories and show how ICT can support the realisation of virtual museums, solving problems related to usability, accessibility and enjoyment aspects.

This special issue is dedicated to the memory of Mauro Cristofani, ten years after his untimely passing.