Building upon the concepts of constructed past theory, this paper introduces the outcome of ontology-mediated data modeling developed by the authors within the last 15 years. Assuming that the past is something constructed through reflection of former times, one of our major concerns is guaranteeing the traceability of the construction process of an integrated historical discourse built from all available sources of information, regardless of their origin or nature. Therefore, by means of defining key concepts such as ‘unit of topography’ and ‘actor’, we created an information system for data gathering and exploitation and applied it to some experiences of construction of the past. When applied within the archaeological domain, the result is an archaeological information system interoperable with other sources of historical information. Its strength is that it ensures the traceability of the process from the beginning avoiding the introduction and repetition of errors within the system. Along with the main case example developed in this paper, we also summarize some other data modeling examples within the same conceptual framework.

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Geophysical surveys have been one of the most useful tools for non‐invasive archaeological field assessment. Whereas they have been regularly put into practice at the archaeological site of Santa Margarida (Martorell, Barcelona, Spain), the particular features of the site required a more specific strategy to identify the contact interface between anthropogenic and natural deposits and, therefore, to conclude the archaeological excavation. As the archaeological site is settled on Quaternary alluvia at the confluence of two rivers, and in the absence of built structures in some areas, it was extremely difficult to distinguish between anthropic layers and those silty or sandy natural deposits during fieldwork. Extensive soil survey by means of borehole logging, full‐coring, and Dynamic Penetrometer Super Heavy testing within this site has proved to be a useful strategy to identify the geological horizon and to map the original relief of past landscape before excavation tasks. This enabled us to plan our fieldwork better and to interpret particular features of the site. This paper aims at summarising the results of recent surveys and discussing the potential of this approach for the study of rural settlements and agrarian landscapes in the Middle Age.

<p> The San Marcos viaduct, which is located into the Mexico D.F. – Tuxpan highway, crosses the San Marcos river gorge. The bridge stands out due to the height of its piers and the environment of the river. The tallest pier rises to 208 m and at the moment of the end of construction it has been the highest pier in the world for a bridge constructed with the balanced cantilever method.</p>

The archaeological analysis of medieval and modern pottery has benefited from the consolidation of archaeometry in the domain of Medieval Archaeology in the past few decades. As part of an ongoing research project devoted to the characterization of pottery production, distribution processes and technological transfer, we deal with a considerable amount of data that are very diverse in origin and nature and must be exploited within an integrated information system in order to provide information for historical knowledge. The Greyware system has been designed to fulfil this goal and provides the main categories for pottery analysis within a shareable and reusable scenario. Its development and application prove that a little semantics goes a long way and that the creation of domain ontologies for archaeological research is an iterative process under development, as long as several projects sharing data, resources and time can develop a collaborative framework to maximize the assets of individual expertise and collaborative work. In this paper, we discuss the requirements of the system, the challenge of developing strategies for normalized data management and their potential for exploiting historical vestiges from an integrated perspective.