3. Cultural Heritage data management and computer science
A good overview on this subject has been given by JD Richards in 1998. His paper reflects especially that"although archaeologists have been quick to apply the latest technology, most cases the technological driving force has been outside the discipline" [1]. is means that the use of computer science in the archaeological domain is often driven by software offers rather than by archaeological questions. In the VRE that we propose, we try to find solutions to this difficulty. Archaeologists are faced with this problem in the various tasks where they need to use computerized tools: when they have to record their data in databases, when they want to link and make use of them, and when they require systems to visualize and publish them. The following sections describe how these tools have been used by archaeologists for years, in or der to understand the real needs and to shape the main lines of a system that would allow us to address the problem.