Nicola Amico | Università degli Studi di Firenze (University of Florence) (original) (raw)

Papers by Nicola Amico

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Feb 27, 2018

Excavations for the construction of thermal pools at Poggetti Vecchi (Grosseto, Tuscany, central ... more Excavations for the construction of thermal pools at Poggetti Vecchi (Grosseto, Tuscany, central Italy) exposed a series of wooden tools in an open-air stratified site referable to late Middle Pleistocene. The wooden artifacts were uncovered, together with stone tools and fossil bones, largely belonging to the straight-tusked elephantThe site is radiometrically dated to around 171,000 y B.P., and hence correlated with the early marine isotope stage 6 [Benvenuti M, et al. (2017)88:327-344]. The sticks, all fragmentary, are made from boxwood () and were over 1 m long, rounded at one end and pointed at the other. They have been partially charred, possibly to lessen the labor of scraping boxwood, using a technique so far not documented at the time. The wooden artifacts have the size and features of multipurpose tools known as "digging sticks," which are quite commonly used by foragers. This discovery from Poggetti Vecchi provides evidence of the processing and use of wood by e...

ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues... more ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related to documentation of its Cultural Heritage. Due to its exceptional archaeological richness, the island of Cyprus was subject to archaeological investigations as early as the 18th century. Since then, and especially before the establishment of the state of Cyprus in 1960, tons of archaeological material were removed and now populate major museums around the world. Modern digital technologies, in particular 3D representation and image processing techniques for the documentation, interpretation, monitoring degrade and the heritage asset management have been extensively employed in the past three years, by the team of STARC at The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of this research is to understand which technique fits more to the archaeological reality of Cyprus, in order to define an optimal methodology that could give satisfying answers to both the scientific and local administration communities. The paper will analyse various methods of 3D documentation, including 3D laser scanning techniques, terrestrial photogrammetry, 3D interpretation techniques, and CAD systems and their integration, allowing the direct comparison between the different methodologies.

SpringerBriefs in Archaeology, 2014

ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues... more ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related to documentation of its Cultural Heritage. Due to its exceptional archaeological richness, the island of Cyprus was subject to archaeological investigations as early as the 18th century. Since then, and especially before the establishment of the state of Cyprus in 1960, tons of archaeological material were removed and now populate major museums around the world. Modern digital technologies, in particular 3D representation and image processing techniques for the documentation, interpretation, monitoring degrade and the heritage asset management have been extensively employed in the past three years, by the team of STARC at The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of this research is to understand which technique fits more to the archaeological reality of Cyprus, in order to define an optimal methodology that could give satisfying answers to both the scientific and local administration communities. The paper will analyse various methods of 3D documentation, including 3D laser scanning techniques, terrestrial photogrammetry, 3D interpretation techniques, and CAD systems and their integration, allowing the direct comparison between the different methodologies.

The paper describes a procedure for creating a joint thesaurus of Architectural Heritage (AH) bas... more The paper describes a procedure for creating a joint thesaurus of Architectural Heritage (AH) based on existing ones. After surveying the most important repositories of historic architectonical information and the associated thesauri, the design of a multilingual framework incorporating the different thesauri is presented and discussed. Also a system to perform semantic queries on these architectural databases is briefly presented. The implementation is based on the combination of existing technology, such as SKOS, RDF, Linked Data and semantic queries.

Built Heritage 2013 Monitoring Conservation Management, 2013

CRMEX 2013 Practical Experiences with CIDOC CRM and its Extensions. Proceedings of the Workshop, 2013

The paper proposes to use CIDOC-CRM and its extension CRMdig to document the planning and executi... more The paper proposes to use CIDOC-CRM and its extension CRMdig to document the planning and execution of 3D models of cultural objects in or- der to manage the quality of the replicas. Full documentation of every process is key to guarantee the quality of the outcomes according to the industrial ap- proach to quality known as Quality Management, for example as described to ISO9001:2008.

Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings depends on their interoperabi... more Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings depends on their interoperability, which has as first step a mapping to a common schema. The paper investigates current approaches and proposes mapping to a CIDOC CRM extension as the common glue to overcome the fragmentation of datasets provided by large national institutions such as MIBAC in Italy, EH in the UK, and so on, and by EU projects, each one structured according to a different metadata schema. The paper describes the mapping of the MA-CA MIBAC-ICCD schemas, probably the most comprehensive, to CIDOC CRM.

CRMEX 2013 Practical Experiences with CIDOC CRM and its Extensions. Proceedings of the Workshop, 2013

Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings de- pends on their interopera... more Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings de- pends on their interoperability, which has as first step a mapping to a common schema. The paper investigates current approaches and proposes mapping to a CIDOC-CRM extension as the common glue to overcome the fragmentation of datasets provided by large national institutions such as MIBAC in Italy, EH in the UK, and so on, and by EU projects, each one structured according to a dif- ferent metadata schema. The paper describes the mapping of the MA-CA MIBAC-ICCD schemas, probably the most comprehensive, to CRM.

Conservation, protection and study of Architectural Heritage (AH) are based on the complete knowl... more Conservation, protection and study of Architectural Heritage (AH) are based on the complete knowledge and documentation of its complex morphology, its architectonic components and all events related to the building.
A key issue for a full recording of a monument is related to the cataloguing process, which is the action of registration, description and classification of Cultural Heritage (CH) assets.
Many Cultural Institutions and National Bodies have been working towards the development of standards to make documentation uniform, retrieve information about Cultural Heritage, promote data sharing, improve content management and reduce redundant efforts.
To regulate the cataloguing activity, rules, guidelines and indications were defined. In particular, thesauri were adopted to provide, with a controlled vocabulary, structure and guidelines for standardization of terms, avoiding ambiguity and subjectivity of documentation and the loss of important information.
Some of these data standards have been defined within a national framework, such as the ICCD schema (Italy)or the MIDAS standard (England); others aim at guaranteeing data interoperability, such as, among others, LIDO and the CARARE schema.
In this paper we carry out an assessment and comparison of the above mentioned schemas and standards, along with the schema adopted by l'Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel (France).
After an analysis of the formal description of the single metadata schemas, we carried out the mapping of the different schemas to each other. The analysis is performed taking into consideration the RecorDim guidelines for documenting CH places.
As a result, the mappings described in the paper enable the interoperability of data stored according to different metadata schemas. Furthermore the paper highlights properties, equivalencies and shortcomings of the schemas, confirming the idea that a more comprehensive documentation standard for Architectural Heritage is needed.

Abstracts of the 1st Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Glasgow 2015, 2015

3D printing is considered the new revolution in the field of cultural heritage and archaeology, c... more 3D printing is considered the new revolution in the field of cultural heritage and archaeology, contributing to the definition of new horizons in the conservation and communication sector. 3D physical replicas can replace original objects that are inaccessible or not available due to their conservation state, their fragility or that cannot be moved because too valuable. Furthermore, a 3D replica can be a valid substitute of lost museum artifacts. This paper presents the case study of the physical replica of the so called Kazafani boat. The 13th century artifact is made of pottery and it is permanently exhibited at the Cyprus Museum. It was found within a tomb at the Kazafani village (Cyprus) in 1963. Recently it was chosen to be part of a travelling exhibition to the Smithsonian Museum (USA), but due to its fragility could not be moved. For this reason a campaign of 3D data acquisition was planned to create an accurate digital replica of the artwork with the aim of making a physical replica to substitute the real object. Size, shape, colours, surface markings, even evidence of past damage and previous episodes of restoration, were all recorded. An exact physical replica of the boat was created with a powder 3D printer. A further implication of this approach enabled conservators to interact and analyze the replicated boat in detail preventing any damage to the original.

Fusion of Cultures. Granada, 6-9 Aprile 2010, p. 55-58, ISBN/ISSN: 978-84-693-0772-4, 2010

Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alh... more Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife. Background photo courtesy of José Manuel Rabasco.

Fusion of Cultures. - 7-Granada, 6-9 Aprile 2010, p. 325-328, ISBN/ISSN: 978-84-693-0772-4, 2010

Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alh... more Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife. Background photo courtesy of José Manuel Rabasco.

Fusion of Cultures. Granada, 6-9 Aprile 2010, p. 461-464, ISBN/ISSN: 978-84-693-0772-4, 2010

Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alh... more Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife. Background photo courtesy of José Manuel Rabasco.

Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related ... more Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related to documentation of its Cultural Heritage. Due to its exceptional archaeological richness, the island of Cyprus was subject to archaeological investigations as early as the 18th century. Since then, and especially before the establishment of the state of Cyprus in 1960, tons of archaeological material were removed and now populate major museums around the world. Modern digital technologies, in particular 3D representation and image processing techniques for the documentation, interpretation, monitoring degrade and the heritage asset management have been extensively employed in the past three years, by the team of STARC at The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of this research is to understand which technique fits more to the archaeological reality of Cyprus, in order to define an optimal methodology that could give satisfying answers to both the scientific and local administration communities. The paper will analyse various methods of 3D documentation, including 3D laser scanning techniques, terrestrial photogrammetry, 3D interpretation techniques, and CAD systems and their integration, allowing the direct comparison between the different methodologies.

A key element in any archaeological excavation is an accurate recording of the excavated material... more A key element in any archaeological excavation is an accurate recording of the excavated material. Since the ar-chaeological process by itself is one of destruction, the need for an accurate documentation becomes even more imperious; when dealing with rescue excavations, where in most cases sites will be completely destroyed or in the best cases covered for posterity, the problem is augmented again. Another challenge is how to obtain an outcome that will serve later on archaeologists to understand their site and prepare an accurate scientific report, and have materials ready for a comprehensive publication. The paper presents the implications, advantages and challenges on using 3D documentation at rescue excavations, as preliminary experimented at the site of Ein Zippori, Israel. These were partially developed during the 3D-COFORM project, aiming at creating affordable 3D technologies and methodologies for the Cultural Heritage sector.

The paper describes an ongoing project aiming at developing a benchmarking procedure for the defi... more The paper describes an ongoing project aiming at developing a benchmarking procedure for the definition of the most suitable methodology for different research goals like conservation, virtual restoration, web visualization, etc. Some typical archaeological artifacts have been tested with the 3D laser scanner NextEngine in order to define guidelines for the digital acquisition and post-processing of similar artefacts types. This test has been carried out focusing on the possible applications of the outcomes and on different parameters offered from the device. These recommendations should help CH professional interested in applying digital technologies in their routine work.

The paper describes the process of 3D virtual reconstruction of an ancient fragmented vessel. The... more The paper describes the process of 3D virtual reconstruction of an ancient fragmented vessel. The work followed several steps: identification of significant potsherds for the 3D reconstruction, the 3D acquisition of the fragments with laser scanner, the analysis of the 3D model (diameter, vertical projection, orientation and thickness), 3D reconstruction and modelling of the vessel, photographic acquisition and ortho-stereoscopic rendering for 3D visualization.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Feb 27, 2018

Excavations for the construction of thermal pools at Poggetti Vecchi (Grosseto, Tuscany, central ... more Excavations for the construction of thermal pools at Poggetti Vecchi (Grosseto, Tuscany, central Italy) exposed a series of wooden tools in an open-air stratified site referable to late Middle Pleistocene. The wooden artifacts were uncovered, together with stone tools and fossil bones, largely belonging to the straight-tusked elephantThe site is radiometrically dated to around 171,000 y B.P., and hence correlated with the early marine isotope stage 6 [Benvenuti M, et al. (2017)88:327-344]. The sticks, all fragmentary, are made from boxwood () and were over 1 m long, rounded at one end and pointed at the other. They have been partially charred, possibly to lessen the labor of scraping boxwood, using a technique so far not documented at the time. The wooden artifacts have the size and features of multipurpose tools known as "digging sticks," which are quite commonly used by foragers. This discovery from Poggetti Vecchi provides evidence of the processing and use of wood by e...

ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues... more ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related to documentation of its Cultural Heritage. Due to its exceptional archaeological richness, the island of Cyprus was subject to archaeological investigations as early as the 18th century. Since then, and especially before the establishment of the state of Cyprus in 1960, tons of archaeological material were removed and now populate major museums around the world. Modern digital technologies, in particular 3D representation and image processing techniques for the documentation, interpretation, monitoring degrade and the heritage asset management have been extensively employed in the past three years, by the team of STARC at The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of this research is to understand which technique fits more to the archaeological reality of Cyprus, in order to define an optimal methodology that could give satisfying answers to both the scientific and local administration communities. The paper will analyse various methods of 3D documentation, including 3D laser scanning techniques, terrestrial photogrammetry, 3D interpretation techniques, and CAD systems and their integration, allowing the direct comparison between the different methodologies.

SpringerBriefs in Archaeology, 2014

ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues... more ABSTRACT Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related to documentation of its Cultural Heritage. Due to its exceptional archaeological richness, the island of Cyprus was subject to archaeological investigations as early as the 18th century. Since then, and especially before the establishment of the state of Cyprus in 1960, tons of archaeological material were removed and now populate major museums around the world. Modern digital technologies, in particular 3D representation and image processing techniques for the documentation, interpretation, monitoring degrade and the heritage asset management have been extensively employed in the past three years, by the team of STARC at The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of this research is to understand which technique fits more to the archaeological reality of Cyprus, in order to define an optimal methodology that could give satisfying answers to both the scientific and local administration communities. The paper will analyse various methods of 3D documentation, including 3D laser scanning techniques, terrestrial photogrammetry, 3D interpretation techniques, and CAD systems and their integration, allowing the direct comparison between the different methodologies.

The paper describes a procedure for creating a joint thesaurus of Architectural Heritage (AH) bas... more The paper describes a procedure for creating a joint thesaurus of Architectural Heritage (AH) based on existing ones. After surveying the most important repositories of historic architectonical information and the associated thesauri, the design of a multilingual framework incorporating the different thesauri is presented and discussed. Also a system to perform semantic queries on these architectural databases is briefly presented. The implementation is based on the combination of existing technology, such as SKOS, RDF, Linked Data and semantic queries.

Built Heritage 2013 Monitoring Conservation Management, 2013

CRMEX 2013 Practical Experiences with CIDOC CRM and its Extensions. Proceedings of the Workshop, 2013

The paper proposes to use CIDOC-CRM and its extension CRMdig to document the planning and executi... more The paper proposes to use CIDOC-CRM and its extension CRMdig to document the planning and execution of 3D models of cultural objects in or- der to manage the quality of the replicas. Full documentation of every process is key to guarantee the quality of the outcomes according to the industrial ap- proach to quality known as Quality Management, for example as described to ISO9001:2008.

Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings depends on their interoperabi... more Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings depends on their interoperability, which has as first step a mapping to a common schema. The paper investigates current approaches and proposes mapping to a CIDOC CRM extension as the common glue to overcome the fragmentation of datasets provided by large national institutions such as MIBAC in Italy, EH in the UK, and so on, and by EU projects, each one structured according to a different metadata schema. The paper describes the mapping of the MA-CA MIBAC-ICCD schemas, probably the most comprehensive, to CIDOC CRM.

CRMEX 2013 Practical Experiences with CIDOC CRM and its Extensions. Proceedings of the Workshop, 2013

Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings de- pends on their interopera... more Integration of architectural datasets concerning historic buildings de- pends on their interoperability, which has as first step a mapping to a common schema. The paper investigates current approaches and proposes mapping to a CIDOC-CRM extension as the common glue to overcome the fragmentation of datasets provided by large national institutions such as MIBAC in Italy, EH in the UK, and so on, and by EU projects, each one structured according to a dif- ferent metadata schema. The paper describes the mapping of the MA-CA MIBAC-ICCD schemas, probably the most comprehensive, to CRM.

Conservation, protection and study of Architectural Heritage (AH) are based on the complete knowl... more Conservation, protection and study of Architectural Heritage (AH) are based on the complete knowledge and documentation of its complex morphology, its architectonic components and all events related to the building.
A key issue for a full recording of a monument is related to the cataloguing process, which is the action of registration, description and classification of Cultural Heritage (CH) assets.
Many Cultural Institutions and National Bodies have been working towards the development of standards to make documentation uniform, retrieve information about Cultural Heritage, promote data sharing, improve content management and reduce redundant efforts.
To regulate the cataloguing activity, rules, guidelines and indications were defined. In particular, thesauri were adopted to provide, with a controlled vocabulary, structure and guidelines for standardization of terms, avoiding ambiguity and subjectivity of documentation and the loss of important information.
Some of these data standards have been defined within a national framework, such as the ICCD schema (Italy)or the MIDAS standard (England); others aim at guaranteeing data interoperability, such as, among others, LIDO and the CARARE schema.
In this paper we carry out an assessment and comparison of the above mentioned schemas and standards, along with the schema adopted by l'Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel (France).
After an analysis of the formal description of the single metadata schemas, we carried out the mapping of the different schemas to each other. The analysis is performed taking into consideration the RecorDim guidelines for documenting CH places.
As a result, the mappings described in the paper enable the interoperability of data stored according to different metadata schemas. Furthermore the paper highlights properties, equivalencies and shortcomings of the schemas, confirming the idea that a more comprehensive documentation standard for Architectural Heritage is needed.

Abstracts of the 1st Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, Glasgow 2015, 2015

3D printing is considered the new revolution in the field of cultural heritage and archaeology, c... more 3D printing is considered the new revolution in the field of cultural heritage and archaeology, contributing to the definition of new horizons in the conservation and communication sector. 3D physical replicas can replace original objects that are inaccessible or not available due to their conservation state, their fragility or that cannot be moved because too valuable. Furthermore, a 3D replica can be a valid substitute of lost museum artifacts. This paper presents the case study of the physical replica of the so called Kazafani boat. The 13th century artifact is made of pottery and it is permanently exhibited at the Cyprus Museum. It was found within a tomb at the Kazafani village (Cyprus) in 1963. Recently it was chosen to be part of a travelling exhibition to the Smithsonian Museum (USA), but due to its fragility could not be moved. For this reason a campaign of 3D data acquisition was planned to create an accurate digital replica of the artwork with the aim of making a physical replica to substitute the real object. Size, shape, colours, surface markings, even evidence of past damage and previous episodes of restoration, were all recorded. An exact physical replica of the boat was created with a powder 3D printer. A further implication of this approach enabled conservators to interact and analyze the replicated boat in detail preventing any damage to the original.

Fusion of Cultures. Granada, 6-9 Aprile 2010, p. 55-58, ISBN/ISSN: 978-84-693-0772-4, 2010

Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alh... more Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife. Background photo courtesy of José Manuel Rabasco.

Fusion of Cultures. - 7-Granada, 6-9 Aprile 2010, p. 325-328, ISBN/ISSN: 978-84-693-0772-4, 2010

Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alh... more Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife. Background photo courtesy of José Manuel Rabasco.

Fusion of Cultures. Granada, 6-9 Aprile 2010, p. 461-464, ISBN/ISSN: 978-84-693-0772-4, 2010

Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alh... more Front cover and logo designed by Jorge Revelles. 3D Lion model courtesy of the Council of the Alhambra and Generalife. Background photo courtesy of José Manuel Rabasco.

Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related ... more Cypriot archaeology presents a complex and challenging reality when compared with issues related to documentation of its Cultural Heritage. Due to its exceptional archaeological richness, the island of Cyprus was subject to archaeological investigations as early as the 18th century. Since then, and especially before the establishment of the state of Cyprus in 1960, tons of archaeological material were removed and now populate major museums around the world. Modern digital technologies, in particular 3D representation and image processing techniques for the documentation, interpretation, monitoring degrade and the heritage asset management have been extensively employed in the past three years, by the team of STARC at The Cyprus Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus. The main goal of this research is to understand which technique fits more to the archaeological reality of Cyprus, in order to define an optimal methodology that could give satisfying answers to both the scientific and local administration communities. The paper will analyse various methods of 3D documentation, including 3D laser scanning techniques, terrestrial photogrammetry, 3D interpretation techniques, and CAD systems and their integration, allowing the direct comparison between the different methodologies.

A key element in any archaeological excavation is an accurate recording of the excavated material... more A key element in any archaeological excavation is an accurate recording of the excavated material. Since the ar-chaeological process by itself is one of destruction, the need for an accurate documentation becomes even more imperious; when dealing with rescue excavations, where in most cases sites will be completely destroyed or in the best cases covered for posterity, the problem is augmented again. Another challenge is how to obtain an outcome that will serve later on archaeologists to understand their site and prepare an accurate scientific report, and have materials ready for a comprehensive publication. The paper presents the implications, advantages and challenges on using 3D documentation at rescue excavations, as preliminary experimented at the site of Ein Zippori, Israel. These were partially developed during the 3D-COFORM project, aiming at creating affordable 3D technologies and methodologies for the Cultural Heritage sector.

The paper describes an ongoing project aiming at developing a benchmarking procedure for the defi... more The paper describes an ongoing project aiming at developing a benchmarking procedure for the definition of the most suitable methodology for different research goals like conservation, virtual restoration, web visualization, etc. Some typical archaeological artifacts have been tested with the 3D laser scanner NextEngine in order to define guidelines for the digital acquisition and post-processing of similar artefacts types. This test has been carried out focusing on the possible applications of the outcomes and on different parameters offered from the device. These recommendations should help CH professional interested in applying digital technologies in their routine work.

The paper describes the process of 3D virtual reconstruction of an ancient fragmented vessel. The... more The paper describes the process of 3D virtual reconstruction of an ancient fragmented vessel. The work followed several steps: identification of significant potsherds for the 3D reconstruction, the 3D acquisition of the fragments with laser scanner, the analysis of the 3D model (diameter, vertical projection, orientation and thickness), 3D reconstruction and modelling of the vessel, photographic acquisition and ortho-stereoscopic rendering for 3D visualization.