Digital reconstruction of the ancient polychromy is a relatively recent phenomenon in the history of archaeological and architectural heritage documentation. It has emerged as a result of new interest of the experimental archaeology and of the technological development of Computer Graphic tools. Therefore, this research aims to identify both the pigments and the colour application techniques used, and the exploration of potential emerging technologies in the reconstruction and visualization of the ancient colour.

The test activity has been carried out on the polychrome sarcophagus dedicated to Ulpia Domnina patroness (Museo Nazionale Romano, inv. no. 125891). It is a mass-production sarcophagus with Victories holding a shield and funerary Cupids that was chosen mainly because of the fair state of preservation of its original polychromy, which could have shed light on the colouring techniques used.

The digitization of the sarcophagus was performed first by producing a geometrical 3D model (acquired with a laser triangulation scanner) and then by acquiring the colour attribute by means of high-resolution and calibrated photographs (using a DLSR camera).

The scientific reconstruction of the original polychromy and the realistic rendering of the Roman sarcophagus, was obtained with the use of some open source tools. This was possible after the knowledge of the reference values for the original colours. In particular, MeshLab tool was used to support the polychrome reconstruction stage, and Blender (or, rather, a combination of MeshLab and Blender) was used to achieve a more sophisticated visual presentation of the current and reconstruction ancient colour.

A central role has been given to the improve the archaeological knowledge and rendering of the different and overlapped layers of paint. The sarcophagus proved to be an interesting case study because we discovered that it was coloured at two different periods in antiquity. That is a very important for the archaeological studies because it is the first documented case of reuse in antiquity by scientific analyses.

At the moment more details are available in publications. Clicking on the image you can visualize, in interactive way, the geometrical 3D model and it is possible switch from current colour for original colouring proposal (middle 3rd cent. AD).

3D viewer