Mobile spectroscopic instrumentation in archaeometry research

Mobile instrumentation is of growing importance to archaeometry research. Equipment is utilized in the field or at museums, thus avoiding transportation or risk of damage to valuable artifacts. Many spectroscopic techniques are nondestructive and micro-destructive in nature, which preserves the cultural heritage objects themselves. This review includes over 160 references pertaining to the use of mobile spectroscopy for archaeometry. Following a discussion of terminology related to mobile instrumental methods, results of a literature survey on their applications for cultural heritage objects is presented. Sections devoted to specific techniques are then provided: Raman spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, and less frequently used techniques. The review closes with a discussion of combined instrumental approaches

APPLICATION IN CULTURAL HERITAGE OF STEREOLITOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES FOR THE 3D REPRODUCTION

With the use of stereolithography, one of the most widespread and old rapid prototyping techniques, it is possible to reproduce objects, damaged or missing parts, faithful replicas of interest in the field of Cultural Heritage. In this work, some of the applications of the stereolithography technique to replicate objects or missing parts of artistic or cultural interest, are illustrated. The aim of the Authors is to highlight the potential, the advantages, and also the limits if any, of this technique when applied in the field of Cultural Heritage for various needs, reporting some real cases of objects obtained in the laboratory with stereolithography

Collaborative and Multi-Modal Mixed Reality for Enhancing Cultural Learning in Virtual Heritage

No abstrac

Key to the Past: Community Perceptions of Yup’ik Youth Interaction with Culturally Relevant Education Inspired by the Nunalleq Archaeology Project

This study qualitatively describes a) the implementation of culturally relevant education (CRE) programs for Yup’ik youth in Quinhagak, Alaska that developed from the Nunalleq Project—a nearby archaeological excavation—and b) community members’ and program facilitators’ perceptions of associated youth social and psychological outcomes. Ten semi-structured interviews (seven community members, three program facilitators) were undertaken and analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Community members and program facilitators attributed numerous outcomes to the Nunalleq-related CRE, such as imparting practical skills (e.g., wilderness survival, artistic and technological skills), teaching young people to value their heritage (e.g., educating them about the struggles their ancestors overcame), and psychological outcomes (e.g., improving self-esteem). Interviewees also offered specific recommendations for planning future local CRE programs. These results provide guidance for local program planners and a framework for researchers to directly assess CRE outcomes in Quinhagak. This project is a step towards the development of a systematic approach to CRE outcome evaluation rooted in community members’ perspectives. Educators developing archaeology-inspired CRE programs in other Indigenous communities may also draw from this study’s results

Virtual 3D Reconstruction of Archaeological Pottery Using Coarse Registration

The 3D reconstruction of objects has not only improved visualisation of digitised objects, it has helped researchers to actively carry out archaeological pottery. Reconstructing pottery is significant in archaeology but is challenging task among practitioners. For one, excavated potteries are hardly complete to provide exhaustive and useful information, hence archaeologists attempt to reconstruct them with available tools and methods. It is also challenging to apply existing reconstruction approaches in archaeological documentation. This limitation makes it difficult to carry out studies within a reasonable time. Hence, interest has shifted to developing new ways of reconstructing archaeological artefacts with new techniques and algorithms. Therefore, this study focuses on providing interventions that will ease the challenges encountered in reconstructing archaeological pottery. It applies a data acquisition approach that uses a 3D laser scanner to acquire point cloud data that clearly show the geometric and radiometric properties of the object’s surface. The acquired data is processed to remove noise and outliers before undergoing a coarse-to-fine registration strategy which involves detecting and extracting keypoints from the point clouds and estimating descriptions with them. Additionally, correspondences are estimated between point pairs, leading to a pairwise and global registration of the acquired point clouds. The peculiarity of the approach of this thesis is in its flexibility due to the peculiar nature of the data acquired. This improves the efficiency, robustness and accuracy of the approach. The approach and findings show that the use of real 3D dataset can attain good results when used with right tools. High resolution lenses and accurate calibration help to give accurate results. While the registration accuracy attained in the study lies between 0.08 and 0.14 mean squared error for the data used, further studies will validate this result. The results obtained are nonetheless useful for further studies in 3D pottery reassembly