Abstract
Visual and material cultures are quintessential archaeological elements to understand the past and the changes occurred in Classical societies. A good example is how the typological analysis provided the necessary dataset to understand the progressive entrance of standardized productions in the Roman world; it served to understand the rise of globalized markets, to detect ancient trade routes and to construct paradigms around the so called "Romanization" process, first in the Italic peninsula, and the rest of the wider Mediterranean then.
Nowadays archaeology is facing new paradigms and issues, much more related to the dissemination of the results of our excavations. As we cannot deny the diminishing commitment of universities to archaeology, new priorities are rising and we are compelled to question the future of our discipline.
A key aspect is represented by the challenge of studying the past and make it accessible to our communities. In other words, we need to exit our trenches and face the increasing public interest around tourism and the search for historical identities.
Engagement with local communities, placemaking, accessibility of archaeological areas, and visual dissemination of artefacts and structures are just a few examples of a new thesaurus that archaeology has to integrate in its research. Without avoiding the rigorous study of the material and visual culture, we need now to address how to make it accessible to the wider audiences possible.
We must continue to produce our scientific catalogues and chronologies, but we have to find a way to translate our academic words into a common, visual language understandable to local communities and tourists. Following Richard Hodges' words, "excavations with their finds [...] and their scientific reporting are the beginning of a process [of place-making] rather than the end", this paper will address this issue by presenting the place-making activities that the IMPERO Project (Interconnected Mobility of Economies and People along the River Ombrone) is implementing to open the excavation sites and the related artefacts to communities.
The aim is to stimulate a debate around the use of modern, cutting-edge technologies such as 3D modelling and Augmented Reality to develop public awareness of the archaeology. The modern, technological approach to visual and material culture represents a key factor in this process.
Our assemblages of votive offerings, black gloss ware and small finds are crucial to understand the intricate changes between the Etruscan and the Roman societies in the 3rd century BC: pottery specialists will spill rivers of ink to describe and analyze them, but all our efforts will be vain if we fail to transmit their importance to reconstruct local identities and provide authenticities to our settlements. An authenticity that can boost sustainable tourism and shape new narratives for our common past.