The Ulpia Domnina's sarcophagus: preliminary report about the use of digital 3D model for the study and reconstruction of the polychromy

This work documents the current condition of the polychromy of a Roman marble sarcophagus, and proposes a reconstruction hypothesis of its original state. The sarcophagus inv. no. 125891 of the Museo Nazionale Romano - Terme di Diocleziano has been chosen since the state of preservation of its ancient colour can reveal the original painting techniques. As a part of this work, a high-resolution digital 3D model of the artefact has been obtained using a triangulation laser scanner. Moreover, a photographic campaign has been performed for the acquisition of the surface appearance (colour). The resulting sampled data have been processed and integrated using the MeshLab open source tool, to obtain a faithful representation of the current state of the artefact. This digital model has been integrated in the pipeline of a project which main aims are: to clarify the pigments and techniques used, and to explore the potentialities of emerging technologies for the reconstruction and presentation of the ancient colour.