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

A structured light approach to imaging ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals: how efficient 3D imaging may facilitate corpuswide research
A structured light approach to imaging ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals: how efficient 3D imaging may facilitate corpuswide research
This chapter presents the work of the 12-month project Seals and Their Impressions in the Ancient Near
East (SIANE), a collaborative effort of the University of Southampton, Oxford University and the
University of Paris (Nanterre). Recognising the need for improved visual documentation of ancient
Near Eastern cylinder seals and the potential presented by new technologies, there have been several
approaches 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 can
quickly capture the maximum amount of meaningful data from a seal, including 3D data from
structured light and an automated production of ‘digital unwrappings’. The project addressed some
issues regarding the physical mounting of seals and developed a method of efficient data-capture that
allows the imaging of large numbers of cylinder seals for research and presentation purposes. A
particular research benefit from 3D image capture of entire seal collections is the potential for
exploring computer-aided image recognition, which could contribute to comparative glyptic studies
as well as helping to address the question of whether any original seals can be linked to known
ancient impressions on tablets or sealings possibly separated across modern collections.
Imaging, Cultural Heritage, Cylinder Seals
49-74
Archaeopress
Dahl, Jacob
57a8a7c1-6be2-40a0-975e-0b5dc94d1722
Hare, Jonathon
65ba2cda-eaaf-4767-a325-cd845504e5a9
Kelley, Kate
4463a15a-e6a0-4d7c-97c0-41190fea25ba
Martinez, Kirk
5f711898-20fc-410e-a007-837d8c57cb18
Young, David
05bfdb8c-9675-470a-9dcb-5af247e1b4ca
Kelley, Kaye
Wood, Rachel
Dahl, Jacob
57a8a7c1-6be2-40a0-975e-0b5dc94d1722
Hare, Jonathon
65ba2cda-eaaf-4767-a325-cd845504e5a9
Kelley, Kate
4463a15a-e6a0-4d7c-97c0-41190fea25ba
Martinez, Kirk
5f711898-20fc-410e-a007-837d8c57cb18
Young, David
05bfdb8c-9675-470a-9dcb-5af247e1b4ca
Kelley, Kaye
Wood, Rachel

Dahl, Jacob, Hare, Jonathon, Kelley, Kate, Martinez, Kirk and Young, David (2018) A structured light approach to imaging ancient Near Eastern cylinder seals: how efficient 3D imaging may facilitate corpuswide research. In, Kelley, Kaye and Wood, Rachel (eds.) Digital Imaging of Artefacts: Developments in Methods and Aims. (Access Archaeology) Archaeopress, pp. 49-74.

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

This chapter presents the work of the 12-month project Seals and Their Impressions in the Ancient Near
East (SIANE), a collaborative effort of the University of Southampton, Oxford University and the
University of Paris (Nanterre). Recognising the need for improved visual documentation of ancient
Near Eastern cylinder seals and the potential presented by new technologies, there have been several
approaches 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 can
quickly capture the maximum amount of meaningful data from a seal, including 3D data from
structured light and an automated production of ‘digital unwrappings’. The project addressed some
issues regarding the physical mounting of seals and developed a method of efficient data-capture that
allows the imaging of large numbers of cylinder seals for research and presentation purposes. A
particular research benefit from 3D image capture of entire seal collections is the potential for
exploring computer-aided image recognition, which could contribute to comparative glyptic studies
as well as helping to address the question of whether any original seals can be linked to known
ancient impressions on tablets or sealings possibly separated across modern collections.

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Published date: 2018
Keywords: Imaging, Cultural Heritage, Cylinder Seals

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 426431
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/426431
PURE UUID: 99799022-f802-4c80-8cf5-0159616d9059
ORCID for Jonathon Hare: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2921-4283
ORCID for Kirk Martinez: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3859-5700

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Date deposited: 27 Nov 2018 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:50

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Contributors

Author: Jacob Dahl
Author: Jonathon Hare ORCID iD
Author: Kate Kelley
Author: Kirk Martinez ORCID iD
Author: David Young
Editor: Kaye Kelley
Editor: Rachel Wood

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