The present volume consists of the peer-reviewed papers presented at the CAA2011 conference held in Beijing, China between April 12 and 16, 2011. The theme of this conference was “Revive the Past”, which means retrieving our history and using it to help create a new civilization. It was a great honour to organize the conference where over 130 researchers made presentations; ten keynote speeches were given; and sixteen sessions covered a wide variety of topics: data acquisition and recording, conceptual modelling, data analysis, data management, digging with words, 3D models, visualizing heritage sites, digital spaces for archaeology, geophysics, GIS, graphics in archaeology, visualisation in archaeology, semantic technologies, spatial prediction, visualization and exhibition, and 3D object reconstruction. In addition, student papers and posters were presented. We held two successful seminars: “The CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model as a Tool for Integrating Cultural Information” and “Creating Conceptual Models in Archaeology”. Two round table discussions were equally stimulating: “The Virtual Silk Road: Reuniting and Recording Scattered Collections and Sites along the Chinese Silk Road” and “Towards an Integrated Geospatial Approach to Archaeological Prospection Data”.

As organizers, we want to thank the CAA Steering Committee for their great support and help. We would like to express our special thanks to Prof. Bernard Frischer for his consistent support and kind help. We express our deep gratitude to all participants and delegates for their contributions. We appreciate the generous support given by local institutions in Beijing, and we single out for special praise all of our volunteers for their hard work on behalf of the conference.

CAA2011 has passed into history but we hope Beijing will remain in the hearts of all the participants, especially those from abroad. May the events, people, and friendships made at the conference long remain in our memory!