Reconstructions of ancient sites or finds can help us to understand the distant past. For non-academics, reconstructions offer a glimpse into that past, a kind of visual accumulation of scientific research communicated by means of images, models or even virtual reality. We see reconstructions in films, museums, and magazines to illustrate the stories behind historical or archaeological facts. For archaeologists like me, however, reconstructions are also an important tool for answering unresolved questions and even raising new ones. One field where this is particularly true is the reconstruction of ancient architecture.
