People of Lepenski Vir: first results of developing guidelines for digitalization of osteoarchaeological record

Abstract

The success in adoption and overall enthusiasm of the archaeologist with the process of 3d scanning of artefacts and contexts has been on the rise in the past years. This could be easily explained: the requirements for doing a quality 3D information capture plummeted with the appearance of the novel and general - public based approach to data acquisition. The IBM (Image Based Modelling) on it’s basic levels required only a camera and some overcast sky or studio light, to have your site, your trench or a newly uncovered artifact, preserved as accurately scaled digital copy, for as long as the storage units would hold the data. There is a flaw, however, present in the fact that this technology has been majorly promoted for use in documenting the very special, beautiful and exquisite of the archaeological record – which is only a small portion of its extent in totality. The mundane and unattractive artefacts and remains of past populations remain untreated, as the process is biasing against the ordinary. In this poster, we present preliminary results of the project “People of Lepenski Vir: protocols for digitalization of bioarchaeological heritage”, supported by the Serbian Ministry of Culture and Information, that targets the obfuscated material, the unattractive, but still well known for its importance. The project aims to create a digitalized archive of the important anthropological collection from Đerdap gorge, dated to Mesolithic and Neolithic period, providing open access to digitalized 3D models. With use of computed tomography and IBM, remains of individuals that were living during one of the most extraordinary periods of human history will be made accessible to a wide audience, retaining metric data and possibility to be analyzed online, while at the same time allowing for the real remains to stay out of exposure and potential harm done during handling.