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 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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Identifiers

ORCID for Jonathon Hare: orcid.org/0000-0003-2921-4283

ORCID for Kirk Martinez: orcid.org/0000-0003-3859-5700

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