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Old Practices, New Tools: Visualising Change in Archaeology

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Posted on Wednesday 24 June 2026

In a newly published volume on digital impacts in archaeology, Dr Loes Opgenhaffen examines how emerging technologies both challenge and sustain long-standing traditions of field visualisation at Satricum.

Recently, the volume Digital Impacts on Archaeological Fieldwork: Advantages and Limitations. Proceedings of the International Workshop held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens, December 4–5, 2024 was published, including my article, Trends in a Technical Tradition. A Reflexive Evaluation of the Impact of Digital Technology on Field Visualization Practice in Satricum (Italy). In this contribution, I examine how digital innovations interact with traditional practices in archaeological field recording, focusing on field illustration at ancient Satricum. It assessess to what extent new technologies reshape or sustain established technical traditions, highlighting a balance between innovation and continuity. Despite ongoing transformation, archaeological visualisation continues to produce familiar-looking results while integrating new tools. 

This volume also includes a contribution by James Taylor and Holly Wright, who likewise address the impact of digital technologies on archaeological fieldwork. While their study approaches this theme from a slightly different perspective, both papers share a concern with how digital tools reshape established practices. Together, they underscore the broader disciplinary challenge of negotiating innovation alongside continuity in archaeological recording and visualisation.

This concerns also connects to my current research project at the University of York, Under Construction: Visualising the organisation of building sites in Archaic Satricum (ca. 600–480 BCE) in 3D. Although archaeological fieldwork does not form a direct component of this project, its methodology and aims engage closely with the same questions, particularly regarding the impact of new technologies on established archaeological practices and modes of visualisation.