In 1996 the Italian National Research Council (CNR) promoted a Special Project on the Safeguard of Cultural Heritage. Its aim was to foster the protection and exploitation of Italian national cultural patrimony, through knowledge, recording, restoration and conservation.

Under this initiative the Istituto per l'Archeologia Etrusco-Italica - at that time directed by Mauro Cristofani (1941-1997) - proposed a research project, which was subsequently approved. The title of the project is "Establishment of an Archaeological Information System model and its application to ancient Caere" (The Caere Project). Its purpose is to use an archaeological information system to study the ancient Etruscan town and territory of Cerveteri, where the Institute has been carrying out surveys and excavations since 1982 jointly with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Etruria Meridionale.