This study re-examines the group of fourteen Cypriot “temple-boy” votive statuettes in the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art through the application of 3D digital imaging technologies. Using structured-light scanning with an Artec Spider, the project produced high-resolution digital surrogates that preserve fine morphological and surface details, enabling new interpretive insights into this enigmatic sculptural type. The resulting 3D models, published openly on Sketchfab, serve as analytical datasets, conservation records, and pedagogical resources. They reveal variations in carving technique, pigment application, and restoration history that were previously undocumented, and they facilitate comparative typological and morphometric analysis across the corpus. By integrating visualization modes such as Matcap renderers, the study demonstrates how 3D imaging expands the perceptual and analytical possibilities of ancient art historical research. This case study underscores the broader potential of digital imaging to transform the study of material culture by enhancing access, preservation, and interpretive precision in the scholarship of ancient Cypriot art and beyond.
To safeguard Italy’s architectural and cultural heritage, particularly at risk given its seismic vulnerability, this research explores the integration of advanced digital technologies, including Building Information Modeling (BIM) and digital survey methodologies, to improve the knowledge, documentation, and conservation of historic sites. Using the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi as a case study, the research demonstrates how digitization processes applied to cultural heritage can support the protection and preservation of historic structures by incorporating intervention records and seismic monitoring data directly into the building’s digital representation. Conducted by the University of Perugia’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in collaboration with the "Provveditorato Interregionale alle OO.PP. per la Toscana, le Marche e l’Umbria" (Interregional Directorate of Public Works for Tuscany, Marche, and Umbria), the study highlights the potential of BIM to serve as a comprehensive information-management tool for cultural heritage. The project aims to provide public administrations with enhanced capabilities for safeguarding and managing heritage assets.
Italy’s small historic centers in inland regions face significant fragility due to administrative challenges, depopulation, and geomorphological risks that threaten their long-term stability. As part of the EU-funded Next Generation EU PRIN 2022 project, this research initiates an experimental action aimed at developing a replicable methodological protocol for the rapid and integrated digital documentation of the historic center of Stigliano (Matera, Basilicata). The objective is to generate a detailed, reality-based 3D model of the urban fabric—encompassing both buildings and open spaces—to serve as the foundation for a digital information system dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of the site. The initial phase of the project focuses on data acquisition through photogrammetric techniques using mini-UAVs combined with mobile laser-scanning systems. This integrated approach, particularly well-suited for sites at high conservation risk, provides speed, flexibility, and comprehensive data capture. The challenging morphology of Stigliano, characterized by substantial elevation differences, a dense and irregular urban layout, and numerous narrow, inaccessible pathways, required a carefully structured close-range acquisition strategy. Additional terrestrial laser-scanning technologies, both static and mobile, were used to fill remaining data gaps. This paper presents the first results of the drone-based survey campaigns and discusses the methodological challenges encountered, along with the subdivision strategies adopted to produce a high-resolution 3D model of the historic center.
The article highlights the central role of theatrical costume as a historical tool for constructing cultural and sartorial identity through performance. It focuses on contemporary practices of digitizing and designing customized garments tailored to the specific physical characteristics of the actors who will wear them. The authors outline a workflow that begins with iconographic research to inform the initial sketches and continues through to the creation of physical prototypes in the tailor’s workshop. 3D modeling techniques, applied to both bodies and garments, make it possible to simulate the fit, refine the patterns, and ensure coherence across the entire production process. Notably, the recovery and reinterpretation of a dispersed and fragmented cultural heritage help revive the methods, knowledge, and artistic sensibilities of a profession now at risk of disappearing: that of the theatrical costume designer.
The creation of a virtual museum today must engage with the semantic web and linked data; it cannot be developed independently of the standards that shape its technological environment. The Virtual Museum of the University of Barcelona, launched in 2021, was conceived with these principles in mind, despite the complexity of its collections which encompass numerous and highly diverse forms of material, immaterial, natural, and human heritage, all managed by faculty members alongside their research, teaching, and administrative duties. This paper presents the process of developing the virtual museum, with particular attention to its material cultural heritage component. It begins by describing the data-modelling work, including the creation of a DCMI application profile informed by the CIDOC-CRM conceptual model. This effort required integrating sector-specific controlled vocabularies adapted for a linked-open-data (LOD) environment, as well as producing a data dictionary for collection managers. The article then discusses the data-cleaning and reconciliation procedures carried out to produce manageable data subsets for curators and to prepare the records for future semantic enrichment. The paper concludes by outlining the remaining tasks and upcoming initiatives aimed at enhancing the museum’s metadata through semantic technologies.
