This question is at the centre of the Master’s thesis by Tuba Ünal, Virtual Environment as a Tool for Presenting the Historical Evolution of Heritage Places: The Case of the Ancient City Library of Nysa ad Maeandrum, completed at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Graduate Program in Conservation of Cultural Heritage, under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pınar Aykaç (Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture), with Prof. Dr. Serdar Hakan Öztaner (Ankara University, Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Department of Archaeology) as co-advisor.

The research investigates the ancient Library of Nysa ad Maeandrum, in western Anatolia, Türkiye, reconstructing its development through seven chronological phases, from the period preceding the construction of the library to its abandonment and the archaeological excavations carried out in the early twenty-first century. The sequence includes the construction of the building around 130 CE, Late Antique interventions, its transformation into a chapel, earthquake-related destruction, later additions and reorganisation, the establishment of a burial ground, and the subsequent excavation and restoration process.

The study combines archaeological literature, excavation and archival documentation, comparative architectural evidence, field observations, photogrammetric documentation and digital modelling. Drone-based photogrammetry was used to produce a reality-based model of the surviving remains, providing the spatial basis for the reconstruction process.

A central element of the research is the use of the Extended Matrix (EM) approach to establish explicit relationships between archaeological evidence, sources, interpretations and reconstructed elements. The historical phases and the evidence supporting their reconstruction are organised through an Extended Matrix graph, while individual reconstructed elements are connected to the archaeological evidence, comparative references and interpretative reasoning on which they are based.

Different levels of reliability are made visible through a colour-coded system, while the seven historical phases are represented through individual proxy models. The resulting reconstruction therefore does not present the building as a single, fixed image of the past: users can move between different phases and access the information supporting individual reconstruction choices through the Heriverse platform.

This approach connects directly with some of the methodological questions addressed by StratiGraph: how to represent the temporal complexity of cultural heritage in digital environments and how to make the relationship between archaeological evidence, interpretation and virtual reconstruction explicit and traceable.

Launch of the StratiGraph project in Rome

Phase 1 of StratiGraph is complete!

From archaeological evidence to virtual reconstruction: Tuba Ünal’s Master’s thesis on the Library of Nysa ad Maeandrum