The RiVa project, where RiVa stands for Rediscovering Hadrian's villa, is aimed at defining a multidisciplinary methodology to approach the problem of representing, reconstructing and restoring archaeological complexes. This methodology should serve as a common base to finalize efforts and contributions of different expertise towards the same goal. Within the RiVa project experts from the areas of engineering, physics, chemistry, architecture and archaeology find a common base to share findings and define strategies for future studies. RiVa serves as a pilot project to take maximum benefits from different expertise in tracing the origin of ancient materials, their scope and function within a structural assembly, their archaeological value, their position within a coherent framework progressively reconstructed with the aid of surveying and artificial data imaging.