A structured light approach to imaging ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals: how efficient 3D imaging may facilitate corpuswide research

Abstract

This chapter presents the work of the 12-month project Seals and Their Impressions in the Ancient NearEast (SIANE), a collaborative effort of the University of Southampton, Oxford University and theUniversity of Paris (Nanterre). Recognising the need for improved visual documentation of ancientNear Eastern cylinder seals and the potential presented by new technologies, there have been severalapproaches to 3D-imaging cylinder seals in recent years (e.g. Pitzalis et al. 2008; Reh et al. 2016;Wagensonner forthcoming). SIANE focused on the development of equipment and workflow that canquickly capture the maximum amount of meaningful data from a seal, including 3D data fromstructured light and an automated production of �digital unwrappings�. The project addressed someissues regarding the physical mounting of seals and developed a method of efficient data-capture thatallows the imaging of large numbers of cylinder seals for research and presentation purposes. Aparticular research benefit from 3D image capture of entire seal collections is the potential forexploring computer-aided image recognition, which could contribute to comparative glyptic studiesas well as helping to address the question of whether any original seals can be linked to knownancient impressions on tablets or sealings possibly separated across modern collections