High Resolution Morphometric Reconstruction of Multimaterial Tiles of an Ancient Mosaic.

Actually scientific research in the human disciplines has been looking with growing interest towards virtual reconstruction of cultural heritage objects and handiworks, and in particular towards those which are dismembered or broken, with the specific aim of virtual anastylosis and virtual conservation of them. In this paper, we present the virtual reconstruction of a mosaic fragment, from the Abbey of Santa Giustina, Padova, Italy: the work, concerning the first part of a larger project of digital anastylosis of the mosaic itself, investigates the geometry of the fragment from single tesserae of different tiles in order to study the single mosaic structure and to reconstruct the whole mosaic. This work shows the laser scanner acquisition of a multi-material objects, requiring a good planning of the scanning phase, underlines all main problems in the acquisition of high reflectance materials and stresses out the possibility to reconstruct of a whole model, allowing to measure all metrical features of tiles in a virtual space (size, volume, depth of alteration strata…) without any invasive contact.