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Ancient Polychromy: Study and Virtual Reconstruction Using Open Source Tools

Published: 07 May 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Digital reconstruction of ancient polychromy is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of archaeological and architectural heritage documentation. It has emerged as a result of new interest in the experimental archaeology and the technological development of computer graphic tools. Therefore, this article presents a project aimed at the scientific reconstruction of the original polychromy and the realistic rendering of an ancient sarcophagus, obtained with the use of some open source tools. In particular, starting from the accurate study of a polychrome Roman sarcophagus (National Roman Museum in Rome, inv. no. 125891), we show how the MeshLab tool was used to support the polychrome reconstruction stage and how Blender (or, rather, a combination of MeshLab and Blender) was used to achieve a more sophisticated visual presentation of the current and reconstruction ancient colour. A central role has been given to the rendering of different and overlapped layers of paint.

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  • (2021)A 3D modeling workflow to map ultraviolet- and visible-induced luminescent materials on ancient polychrome artifactsDigital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage10.1016/j.daach.2021.e0020523(e00205)Online publication date: Dec-2021
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Published In

cover image Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage
Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage   Volume 8, Issue 3
May 2015
111 pages
ISSN:1556-4673
EISSN:1556-4711
DOI:10.1145/2744296
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 07 May 2015
Accepted: 01 February 2015
Revised: 01 November 2014
Received: 01 October 2013
Published in JOCCH Volume 8, Issue 3

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Author Tags

  1. 3D digitalization
  2. Blender
  3. MeshLab
  4. Roman sarcophagus
  5. archaeological artefacts
  6. modelling tools
  7. open source
  8. virtual colour reconstruction

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  • Research-article
  • Research
  • Refereed

Funding Sources

  • ArTeSalVa project (http://artesalva.isti.cnr.it/)

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Digital methods and techniques for reconstructing and visualizing ancient 3D polychromy – An overviewJournal of Cultural Heritage10.1016/j.culher.2024.05.00268(59-85)Online publication date: Jul-2024
  • (2022)The Virtual Reconstruction of the Aesculapius and Hygeia Statues from the Sanctuary of Isis in Lilybaeum: Methods and Tools for Ancient Sculptures’ EnhancementApplied Sciences10.3390/app1207356912:7(3569)Online publication date: 31-Mar-2022
  • (2021)A 3D modeling workflow to map ultraviolet- and visible-induced luminescent materials on ancient polychrome artifactsDigital Applications in Archaeology and Cultural Heritage10.1016/j.daach.2021.e0020523(e00205)Online publication date: Dec-2021
  • (2020)Restoration of an 18th century frame: 3D modelling, printing and matching color of decorative flowers elementsGe-conservacion10.37558/gec.v18i1.85418:1(313-322)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2020
  • (2020)Open Workflows for Polychromatic Reconstruction of Historical Sculptural Monuments in 3DJournal on Computing and Cultural Heritage 10.1145/338631413:3(1-16)Online publication date: 5-Aug-2020
  • (2019)Vandalized Frescoes’ Virtual RetouchingTransdisciplinary Multispectral Modeling and Cooperation for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage10.1007/978-3-030-12957-6_11(150-170)Online publication date: 21-Feb-2019
  • (2018)Coloring the Temple of DendurMetropolitan Museum Journal10.1086/70173753(8-23)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2018
  • (2018)Digital Color Restoration of Vandalized Monument’s Frescoes10th International Symposium on the Conservation of Monuments in the Mediterranean Basin10.1007/978-3-319-78093-1_61(561-569)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2018
  • (2016)Improving three-dimensional reconstruction of buildings from web-harvested images using forensic cluesJournal of Electronic Imaging10.1117/1.JEI.26.1.01100926:1(011009)Online publication date: 10-Nov-2016

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