Papageorgiou, Stevens, Bailey-Ross and Teba argue that preserving a digital archaeological object without the metadata and paradata that explain what it represents and how it was produced is preservation in name only. Their framework moves preservation toward the research process itself by advocating preservation-ready objects, open formats and documentation capable of reconstructing creative and interpretive decisions. Paradata becomes especially important for virtual reconstructions because repeatability depends on recovering the sequence of archaeological judgements, software operations and design choices behind an apparently finished model. The iconic idea is therefore reproducible context: the object’s future intelligibility resides partly in information outside its visible surface. Methodologically, the paper synthesises format recommendations into an open documentation framework and connects technical standards with epistemic accountability. It bridges digital archaeology, open science and archival theory by demonstrating that long-term access must preserve not only outcomes but also the conditions of production through which those outcomes can later be understood, evaluated and potentially remade.
URBANISM MEETS ART