The Bust of the Emperor Hadrian. Documentation and Graphic Analysis of the Bust in the Archaeological Museum of Yecla

The bust of Hadrian from the site of Los Torrejones is currently exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Yecla. It was carved from a unique piece of high-quality marble (Gutierrez et al. 2018) coming from the emperor’s the quarries (Noguera and Ruiz 2020) and was discovered during an archaeological campaign held between 2008 and 2016. It dates to the 2nd century AD, specifically in the year 135 (Noguera and Ruiz 2018). Our purpose was to create two types of 3D models, a high-resolution one to graphically document the sculpture and carry out subsequent analyses, and a derived one, lighter and more portable, suitable to be upload to digital platforms for dissemination. The high-resolution three-dimensional model is aimed at supplying different professionals involved in knowledge and conservation process with a reliable and consistent digital representation of this piece to be used for analysis, comparisons, and stylistic studies. A 3D printed replica of the portrait was made with the additional aim to enable inclusive and interactive activities for visually impaired visitors. For dissemination purpose an optimized 3D model was generated through a process derived from CGI methodologies capable to encode geometric data into special bitmaps applied to low-resolution versions of the original full-resolution mesh. In this way, without losing visual quality, a lighter model can be download on the fly on common mobile devices. To obtain the optimized model, several processes are necessary, such as quad-dominant remeshing or “retopology” starting from triangular meshes, parameterization or (u, v) mapping, a roughness map and the reprojection of frames to achieve apparent color texture. Finally, the virtual reconstruction of the room where it was located will be carried out.