Description:
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applications to archaeological projects of different scales, chronological contexts and cultural milieux has accrued by now a long history and bibliography. Hopefully the phases of experimentation and almost blind testing are over, even if GIS applications are still sometimes being labeled as “new technologies”. This does not mean that scientific research is on a blind alley and nothing new is to be expected from GIS applications to archaeology. It means only that at present some strong, reliable and indisputable basis exist and are available to build new research on. Just as archaeological stratigraphy, GIS and spatial information technology is now a widespread and steady technique handled everyday by hundreds of archaeologists that use these tools to manage, visualize, query and model datasets that are growing everyday more diversified and richer. It is thus important to keep an eye open on current research in order to promptly identify innovative best practices or approaches that can greatly help in interpreting our data.