A dashboard for the analysis of tangible heritage artefacts: a case study in archaeology

Digital manipulation and analysis of tangible cultural objects has the potential to bring about a revolution in the way classification, stylistic analysis, and refitting of fragments are handled in the cultural heritage area: 3D modelling, processing and analysis are now mature enough to allow handling 3D digitized objects as if they were physical, and semantic models allow for a rich documentation of many different aspects of artefacts or assets of any complexity, as well as of contextual information about them. In this perspective, the paper presents the ongoing development of a software workbench which integrates several tools that can be used, combined, and customized to provide scientists with a working environment to process and analyse digital assets. The general objective is to exemplify the potential of new platforms to work on digital models beyond the simple rendering and visualization of assets. In particular, the paper presents the design of the workbench - the Dashboard - which reflects the analysis of the requirements gathered in a specific community of archaeologists and curators: the functionalities included in the case study target mostly the ReUnification, ReAssembly and ReAssociation of fragmented or dispersed cultural assets.