A virtual connection between past and present: the digital revival of Cham’s Architecture (Vietnam)

The ancient archeological ruins represent a tangible sign of past cultures, a unique historical documentation that often present huge structural or decorative lacks due to human or natural factors. The integration with traditional analysis, focused principally on the found interpretation and remains preservation, and 3D acquisition techniques, allows to generate digital accurate moulds of real artifacts and virtual reconstruction of ancient buildings, increasing the comprehension between the past and the present. But the definition of reliable virtual reconstructions is quite complicated both for the long data process that implies technical and cultural skills, and the complex use of the digital model as shared and intelligible instrument of communication between humanists and technology experts. The aim of this paper is to describe this whole digital process step by step, focusing in particular on the methodologies that can allow to reach the best virtual reconstructions solutions. The case study regards a group of Cham temples located in Mỹ Sơn site, an UNESCO archeological area in Vietnam.