ARCRANGE AND ARCSEER: PRESENTING A NEW APPROACH TO ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA MANAGEMENT AND REPRESENTATION

Abstract. This paper presents a new approach to archaeological data management and representation. The archaeological discipline has struggled to come to terms with the representational demands imposed by the adoption of post-processualist theoretical methodologies. The traditional canon of representational device that has served the positivist frameworks so well in the past has been found wanting when used to present post-processualism's doubt, multivocality, multisensory experience and general reflexivity. This paper presents a new set of data management and visualisation digital tools that seek to address these shortcomings. ArcRange is a backend data management solution that provides easy and powerful manipulation of the varied forms that make up modern archaeological datasets. ArcSeer is a data visualisation tool which uses 3D technology to represent datasets in a more naturalistic or phenomenological way. ArcSeer accesses its data by interfacing with ArcRange. This paper will present an overview of the combined operation of both of these new systems using the test datasets of the Cretan sites of Petsofa and Priniatikos Pyrgos by way of illustration.