Abstract Digitization of cultural assets has become an important sub-area of computer vision (CV). Thus far, the value of digitization has been emphasized in terms of asset preservation and exhibition. The third aspect of digitization value is that the obtained digital data can be used to perform archaeological analysis based on physics and optics theories and simulations. This position paper emphasizes the importance of this third aspect, using our Kyushu decorative tumuli project as an illustrative example. In particular, we focus on the photometric approaches in the third aspect and explain the equipment and methods developed there as well as archaeological findings. This paper, then, proposes to establish this area as “cyber-archaeology” through categorizing and organizing those methodologies.