A First Digital Reconstruction of the so-Called Armor of Theoderic

Cultural heritage is continuously subject to numerous risk factors that threaten and compromise its integrity, hence the need to activate effective risk mitigation practices. Increasingly, digital methodologies are contributing to this field, which enables the combination of operations for documentation, preservation, and enhancement of cultural heritage. The same techniques can be profitably and equally applied for now lost objects reconstruction: together with verified historical sources, using these technologies would allow the recovery of models as consistent and faithful. Based on this meta disciplinary approach between historical-philological research and digital technologies, a reconstruction project of the so-called armor of Theoderic is proposed. Different workflows and the data collected and produced will be made explicitly open, allowing cooperation processes in an Open Science perspective. This first 3D model of the so-called armor of Theoderic may be the basis for multiple possible uses to make an iconic object of great cultural significance usable again to the public and the scientific community.