From Ruin to Digital Revitalisation: Spatial Layering in Archaeological Sites — The Cases of Göbeklitepe and Ephesus

Archaeological sites are layered records of the past, and each new intervention made to protect or present them adds a layer of its own like shelters, walkways, visitor centers, museums, and now digital environments. This study asks how such additions relate to the ground they sit on. The concern is sharpest for visitor centres and digital museums placed inside the site, since they can crowd the physical remains and may leave visitors less inclined to look at the real thing after an immersive show experience. Two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, Göbeklitepe and Ephesus in Türkiye are compared. The comparison is qualitative and applies the same three criteria to both sites: the position of spatial thresholds, physical reversibility, and the boundary between physical evidence and digital interpretation. The comparison suggests that the amount of evidence shapes the narrative a site can honestly tell, that the position of a threshold sets the order in which visitors meet ground, building, and story, and that reversibility works only when it is built into the design brief. Digital reversibility, the chapter concludes, cannot stand in for physical reversibility.