Author:

Keywords:

Digital Solutions, Endangered Heritage, Portable Light Dome, Archaeology, Photogrammetry

Abstract:

Most of the heritage we cherish today, including those we identify as collective heritage, has an expiration date for many reasons. In fact, most has been lost before it receives any kind of documentation: national museums burn down in war, archaeological sites are bulldozed and fragile, and artifacts crumble away in storeroom drawers. Digitization methods can offer solutions, but they come with limits and disadvantages. While identifying the appropriate imaging purpose is challenging, but crucial, deploying interactive or multi-layered methods can provide additional benefits. In many situations they are costly, technologically demanding, time-consuming and the resulting datasets can be large and difficult to handle. At the same time, they potentially document the original artifacts which benefit future generations better than static photographs, drawings or written descriptions. In this talk four imaging challenges and accompanying solutions are presented in their development and use for endangered and/or fragile heritage from ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Based on these practices, reflections on their usefulness and disadvantages are discussed.