In this workshop the new possibilities and perspectives of the applications of virtual reality systems, 3D GIS and 3D visual processing for archiving, interpreting and communicating spatial archaeological data wil be discussed. Lon Addison (UC Berkeley, USA) Maurizio Forte (CNR-ITABC, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy) Marco Gaiani, (Politecnico di Milano, Italy) The landscape is a dynamic context of different transformations intelligible through the time: cultural, historic, political, social, geomorphologic, geographic, anthropological. The study and the analysis of the archaeological and historical landscape involve a multidisciplinary approach in order to reconstruct cultures, paleo-environments, mental maps (mindscapes), geomorphology, settlements in diachronic way. Therefore the diachronic and dynamic reconstruction of the landscape needs to implement different methods and advanced digital technologies: GIS (Geographical Information Systrem), remote sensing, virtual reality, predictive modelling, multimedia applications. The final result concern a virtual representation of all the information useful for a complete and deep cultural European knowledge and communication of the landscape, including distinct aspects and layers of valorisation. The main goal of the workshop is to start a multidisciplinary discussion on the digital methods of analysis and 3D representation for the reconstruction of the historical and archaeological landscapes whether in epistemological or technological way. The complexity of this kind of contexts will allow to test the most advanced digital technologies in order to valorise and to know cultural identities, issues and differences through the time. The integrated use mainly of GIS, remote sensing, virtual reality and multimedia applications is a fundamental approach for understanding the past and the present and, in our case, for interpreting cognitive models of the landscape. The interpretation or reconstruction of previous cognition is not a simple process. Knowledge is cognitively processed information, and is both represented and the basis of action. Cognitive archaeology, the study of past ways of thought as inferred from material remains, still presents so many challenges to the practitioner that it seems if not a novel, at any rate, an uncertain endeavour. One goal is to show that people had preferences independent of economic necessity. A second goal is to demonstrate how ideals may be altered or transformed by reality into an amalgam. Settlements and housing location are the results of a series of personal and cultural decisions. The ideal pattern of settlement, in the mind of the ancient people, may be tempered, adjusted and transformed by topographic reality. These ideal forms are grounded in such economic realities as trade and transport, or established upon such cultural realities as heritage, aesthetic norms, or social and religious rules. As archaeologists, one of our ultimate goals is to extract the cultural ideals from the complicated reality in the complex patterns of prehistoric material remains. The interpretation and the knowledge of archaeological landscape is the result of numerous compromises between ideal and real. Preliminary program (15 minutes for each paper, 5 minutes for the discussion after each paper) 1. Ian Johnson, Should we walk before we fly? Some comments on 3D GIS and visualisation 2. Lon Addison, 3D Graphical Information Systems in Archaeology and Design: Examples, shortcomings, and challenges ahead 3. Susan Tennant, CLIOH, cultural digital library indexing our heritage 4. Maurizio Forte, Reconstructing the landscape: VR and scientific visualization in archaeology 5. Marco Gaiani, Architectural & Archeological 3D GIS & data capture 6. Jeremy Jarrell, 3D Modeling as applied to the Preservation of Archaeological Significant Sites 7. Daniel Chudak, title to define 8. Romy Randev, QTVR and Taj Mahal: Vision of Paradise CD-ROM 9. Guido Beltramini, "Digital Palladio project" Caverllee Cary, Lon Addison discussants 10. Scot Refsland "Enhanced Location-based services: a 3D spatial media architecture for interactive on-location delivery."  Remote Sensed Archaeological data and 3D visualization;  3D GIS in archaeology: tools and software;  Virtual Reality Systems and Visual Geographic Information;  3D databases in Archaeology;  VR devices for the advanced visualization of spatial data;  Virtual Reconstructions of Archaeological Landscapes;  Multilayered analyses of Spatial Data;  DGPS and archaeological surveys for monitoring and reconstructing 3D archaeological landscapes;  3D GIS and Geophysics;  3D Web Interfaces for Visualizing GIS archaeological data;  3D Virtual Libraries of Georepherenced Cultural Data;  Archaeological Spatial Analyses and 3D Visualization;  OpenGl Technologies in Archaeological VR GIS;  Epistemology of VR GIS in Archaeology;  VR GIS, Communication and Cultural Tourism.