2015 Digital Heritage

We present x-ray imaging results for diverse iron-based-ink antique writings - single-page manuscripts, stacks and scrolls - from the 16th century on. The objective is to elaborate new digitization techniques by x-ray tomography for the “Venice Time Machine” (VTM) project in collaboration with the “Archivio di Stato”. The technique can potentially read unopened - perhaps unopenable - documents and... View full abstract»

Historical parchment scrolls are fragile, and prone to damage from a variety of causes such as fire, water, and general mistreatment. Consequently many of these scrolls cannot be unrolled, so that their contents have remained hidden for centuries. To overcome these difficulties, we have developed a method of segmenting X-ray tomographic scans of parchment which enables a “virtual unrolling” of the... View full abstract»

Museum collections are composed of many different materials with different optical properties. These properties are an important factor to consider when using 3D digitisation as museum artefacts cannot be sprayed with an opaque coating to avoid reflection and facilitate 3D scanning. In this paper we review a wide variety of materials and techniques in order to propose guidelines for the 3D digitis... View full abstract»

Recent excavations at Khirbat al-Jariya, an Iron Age copper smelting center in Southern Jordan, were supplemented with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to study the diachronic narrative of copper smelting over the site's history. By elementally analyzing copper production waste (copper slag) from stratigraphically controlled contexts, it is possible to compare relative element concentrations ... View full abstract»

Historical text archives constitute a rich and diverse source of information, which is becoming increasingly readily accessible, owing to large-scale digitisation efforts. Searchable access is typically provided by applying Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to scanned page images. Often, however, the automatically recognised text contains a large number of errors, since OCR systems are ... View full abstract»

This research aims to develop cheap and quite easy-to-use methods for 3D museology. We worked with specialists of various fields to pool everyone's knowledge at its very best: historians, curators, and computer scientists built digital tools for enhanced communication, teaching and research for museums. We will show one of our experiment to show what digital technologies and 3D development can bri... View full abstract»

Reflected infrared imaging has been used as an investigation tool for paintings and paper conservation since the 1930s. The technique can reveal underdrawings, expose compositional changes, provide information about manufacturing process and technique, and differentiate materials. As digital camera technology and computing have evolved, the technique has continued to advance, improving the applica... View full abstract»

In the summer of 2012, the IFA-NYU Selinunte Mission began to explore the interior of the cella of Temple R. This excavation showed that the Classical and Archaic layers had been sealed by a deep fill of the Hellenistic period and left untouched by earlier archaeological research at the site. Among the discoveries was a series of votive depositions against the walls, dating back to the sixth centu... View full abstract»

The result of Computed Tomography (CT) investigation consists in a 3D volume of the object able to show its inner parts, revealing hidden structures and materials used in a completely non-invasive way. Its application, in Cultural Heritage field, is an important resource to enhance the knowledge of execution the construction technique and the state of conservation. This work was triggered by a nee... View full abstract»

Woodblocks that have been handed down for hundreds of years that have wear, deformation, and damage in their shape, are sometimes still used for printing. In this study, the original forms of such woodblocks were obtained through three-dimensional digital reconstruction with the appropriate mesh size of the width and the depth of the letters on it, and a replica was produced through computer numer... View full abstract»

This work shows our experience using photogrammetry at the site of Monte Bernorio. It tackles the usefulness of this technology from two different points of view: On one hand, as a technique that can help to the preservation of excavated structures and objects, from a conservation viewpoint. On the other hand, as an improvement on the daily documentation during the excavation of an archaeological ... View full abstract»

The aim of this work is an approach using multisource remote sensing techniques to study and to evaluate the natural and cultural heritage within the framework of a global research in the Mesoamerican Corridor. Remote sensing, as a non-destructive technique, enable the measurement of spectral anomalies and biophysical parameters which may be indicative of the state of preservation of the big manma... View full abstract»

The scope of this paper is to highlight the challenges, advantages and disadvantages, as well as solutions to some of the issues that arise during the process of a monument's virtual 3D reconstruction using Structure from Motion (SfM) techniques. Yali Tzamisi, a 17th century monument located in Chania, Crete, has been photographed appropriately by three separate student groups, one for the buildin... View full abstract»