Conservation dossier / 01
A broken edge is not an empty space. It holds clues about material, manufacture, use and loss.
Digital tools can help specialists connect those clues. AI can suggest what might fit. Neither turns a convincing image into a recovered historical fact.
Examine the evidenceBegin with what survives: a surface, a fracture, a trace of colour. Our dossier follows the object from careful capture to a proposed whole—and keeps the uncertain parts visible.
First, observe
Photographs, measurements and scans answer different questions. A useful record connects each digital observation to the physical object.
Photogrammetry can estimate surface geometry from overlapping images. Reflectance Transformation Imaging can reveal shallow marks. Neither automatically identifies a material or reconstructs its missing history.
Read the capture dossier
Scale, lighting, calibration and processing choices belong beside the model.
What should be recorded?Then, propose
A scan-to-proposal sequence separates the measured object from the model's contribution.
Build a traceable record of visible surfaces, including inaccessible areas and measurement limitations.
Test symmetry, matching fragments or learned shape patterns. Keep several candidates rather than one seductive answer.
Compare each candidate with fractures, materials and historical context. A specialist can reject them all.
Explore reconstruction methodsThree labels make a reconstruction easier to question—and easier to trust for the right reasons.
Learn how proposals are tested · Read the ethics of disclosure
Four reading routes
Choose a recording method around an object's surfaces, fragility and research question.
Open the capture recordUnderstand what shape completion and fragment matching can—and cannot—support.
Open the reconstruction recordEvaluate fit, compare alternatives and avoid overstating confidence.
Open the validation recordKeep sources, decisions, permissions and uncertainty attached to the result.
Open the intervention recordUsually not. It can generate candidates consistent with selected evidence, but several different histories may produce similar surviving fragments. A plausible completion is not proof.
A purely digital proposal does not physically alter it. However, scanning may require handling, and a digital proposal may influence later treatment. Those decisions still require conservation oversight.
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