ABSTRACT

The National Museum of Romanian History in Bucharest holds a vast number of archaeological objects of both Romanian and European cultural significance: ceramics, objects made of marble, stone, copper, gold, and silver, as well as a col-lection of painted icons and manuscripts, dating from prehistoric periods to the Modern Age. The museum has been undergoing renovation for several years and the majority of the objects in its collection are not available to the public.

The main purpose of the case study described in this chapter is to grow the collection of digitized objects and their 3D visualizations, and to present these for viewing in a virtual gallery. Through this the general public, as well as schol-ars, will be able to access virtual surrogates of the objects that are at present not available on site. Another objective of this case study was to implement state-of-the-art non-invasive techniques for acquiring images of the artefacts, using both spectral and spatial object documentation. Finally, the case study aims to disseminate information about the digitization process and to provide specifications and guidelines of good practice that will serve both the scientific and arts and humanities communities involved in the field of cultural heritage. The objects used in this study were: three ceramic vases from the Cucuteni culture, three icons painted on wood, and a collection of medieval manuscripts. The techniques used for recording and analysis were photogrammetry and multispectral imaging.

Keywords: icons, medieval manuscripts, Cucuteni, photogrammetry, multispectral imaging, COSCH

Introduction If one were to think of cultural heritage as a person, one would most probably describe this person as a wise, long-distance time-voyager, who survived and withstood centuries of history in order to be able now to share a selfdefining life story; a person whose eyes sparkle with the desire of surviving twice as many cen-turies longer to keep the story mimetically close to its original: alive, intact, and unperturbed. For the story may be looked upon as one of the substantial means through which one can reach the true understanding of an instance. The time voyager, the embodied cultural heritage, is aware that the greatest threat to his story is the loss of credibility, which may happen easily when change is waiting at the corner, year after year.