The preservation and valorisation of osteological and anthropological cultural heritage through three-dimensional digital technologies: a preliminary pilot study on the Collezione Antropologica LABANOF

Digital tools, over the past decades, have become increasingly popular across numerous research fields. Among these, Heritage Science (HS) has benefited from new technological developments, as digitization of cultural artefacts appeared a fundamental practice and additional assistance to the traditional framework. Within HS discipline, alongside the introduction of Virtual Anthropology (VA), CT and surface scanning have been adopted as essential tools in both the fields of bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. Although a debate is still ongoing concerning the classification of human skeletal remains within the broad area of cultural heritage, this material is widely considered part of said category. Considering its fragility, the preservation of osteological materials is vital. Among the methodologies for their conservation, digitization offers different tools and a wide range of prominent techniques. While these instruments are increasingly utilized and investigated, they also present some limitations have been highlighted. Moreover, scientific dissemination requires these tools to be well selected and employed, based on the scope of the presentation to the public, in order to appropriately convey the results. This dissertation focuses on the investigation of multiple digitization and enhancement techniques and tools, their limitations and advantages through three main thematic areas. The first section is dedicated to the investigation of specific limitations that can be encountered during the digitization process. Three questions were selected and investigated separately: the issue with fragmented bones and their necessary reconstruction, limits on digitizing small material and accuracy of the digital replicas. To delve into the first topic, the differences between traditional and digital reassembly were analysed, investigating whether there was a quantifiable difference between the original bone and the copy. The second thematic area concerned the digitization of fragile and small material. In a case of analysis of cremains and the potential loss of material over frequent handling, digital tools were employed to complement traditional assessments. The last topic concerns a qualitative issue: the discerning of signs of pathological or taphonomic agents on bones through macroscopic observation by multiple operators. The second part of the dissertation investigates how digital tools can help assist anthropological analysis and, potentially, complement traditional evaluations where traditional procedures cannot offer further solutions. A first forensic case study illustrates the application of digital methodologies in trauma analyses, highlighting their relevance not only in forensic contexts but also potential application in bioarchaeology. Furthermore, this second part delved into the employment of 3D technologies related to events reconstruction in complex archaeological contexts, such as the study of skeletal remains belonging to victims of execution during World War II. Finally, the third section is dedicated to data sharing and scientific dissemination to broad public. In this final chapter, three examples are presented where digital tools promoted enhancement of digitized material for preservation and educational contents. Overall, the first section identified technical limitation of the instrument when applied to the digitization of small material. In this case, intrinsic factors resulted in the impossibility of correctly creating the replicas of cremains and digitally measuring them. Moreover, when comparing digitized replicas to their original dry bones, the virtual specimens resulted in overall lower accuracy. However, when considering the nature of the alteration, bones showing signs of pathological lesions performed worse than the ones presenting taphonomic alterations. This highlighted the need to further investigate limitations of digitized osseous elements, specifically if employed in qualitative anthropological assessments. In contrast, considering digital reconstruction procedures, a specifically written guide allowed observers of various levels of expertise to complete the virtual reassembly of fragmented bones. Comparing the digitally reassembled specimens to the traditionally reassembled ones, results showed low deviations for all observers. Nevertheless, to achieve optimal results, it is preferable that digital procedures be performed by practitioners with some basic experience in digital technologies. Second and third research lines highlighted the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to practical cases and wide public dissemination. Digitization techniques offered valuable assistance in different scenarios, specifically in cases where traditional anthropological procedures could not be applied. These works resulted in the enhancement of anthropological findings, as well as in the restitution of events reconstruction for tangible and intangible cultural heritage preservation. Through these investigations, significant osteological material has been digitized and permanently virtually archived, contributing to its long-term preservation and to the methodological advancement of digital applications in Heritage Science and anthropology. Although limitations were observed, many advantages have also been presented, highlighting the fundamental role that digital applications and multidisciplinary approaches play in these multi-layered frameworks.