From the cave to the virtual museum: accessibility and democratisation of Franco-Cantabrian Palaeolithic art

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2023.17684

Keywords:

virtual museum, virtual exhibition, Palaeolithic art, parietal art, portable art, photogrammetry

Abstract

Palaeolithic art is a cultural manifestation of great importance to understanding the early history of our species. Through this artistic phenomenon, one can study aspects such as long-distance contacts, evidence of learning or the perception with which Palaeolithic humans were able to execute and memorise such precise details. However, there are few virtual repertoires that offer collections of Palaeolithic art. Accessibility to this type of archaeological remains is even more difficult considering conservation is prioritised over tourist visits. For these reasons, Palaeolithic art is today a type of cultural asset that is largely unknown to the population. The project "PaleoArt-3D: regreso al pasado" was created with the aim of democratising this heritage and making it more accessible. To this end, a virtual museum has been developed to exhibit digital models of parietal and portable art with complementary annotations for each one. The methodology includes a first stage dedicated to digitising examples of Palaeolithic art in caves or open-air stations and exhibited in Spanish and French museums. Next, the necessary infrastructure was designed to house the exhibition using specific software such as Blender. Post-processing tasks were carried out to reducing the number of polygons without losing quality. Finally, the museum has been uploaded to the Sketchfab platform to make it freely available online. It is hoped that this virtual museum will contribute to promoting and creating a more significant number of digital resources related to Palaeolithic art that are easily accessible to the public.

Highlights:

  • Despite being a transcendental cultural manifestation in the history of humanity, there are hardly any open-access virtual repertoires of Palaeolithic art.
  • The numerous photogrammetric studies carried out in successive archaeological campaigns to answer scientific questions can be used in educational and dissemination projects.
  • In the framework of the authors’ outreach project called "PaleoArt-3D: regreso al pasado" a virtual museum has been created to make Palaeolithic art a more accessible and democratic heritage.

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Author Biographies

Miguel García-Bustos, University of Salamanca

Miguel García-Bustos is a PhD student in the Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology and a member of the Laboratorio de Tecnología Prehistórica (LabTec). His line of research focuses on the study of the iconography, composition and formalisms of Magdalenian Palaeolithic art by means of data analysis, advanced statistics and geometric morphometry.

Olivia Rivero, University of Salamanca

Olivia Rivero Vila is Lecturer at the Department of Prehistory, Ancient History and Archaeology and director of the Laboratorio de Tecnología Prehistórica (LabTec). Her lines of research include the technological study of European Upper Palaeolithic portable and parietal art, microscopic analysis for the reconstruction of artists' gestures, and the application of statistical analysis methods for the study of the characteristics of Palaeolithic artistic production.

Paula García Bustos, University of Barcelona

Paula García Bustos is a PhD student in the Department of History and Archaeology and is part of the LArcHer project ERC team. Her line of research focuses on using Levantine Rock Art as a reference to raise new questions of global interest on the evolution of creative thought and human cognition (birth of anthropocentrism and visual narratives in the history of prehistoric art).

Ana María Mateo-Pellitero, University of Salamanca

Ana María Mateo-Pellitero is a technician at the Laboratorio de Tecnología Prehistórica (LabTec). She specialises in photogrammetric restitution, database management and analysis of archaeological material. She is currently developing photogrammetric work for the study of Palaeolithic rock art.

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Published

2022-09-06

How to Cite

García-Bustos, M., Rivero, O., García Bustos, P., & Mateo-Pellitero, A. M. (2022). From the cave to the virtual museum: accessibility and democratisation of Franco-Cantabrian Palaeolithic art. Virtual Archaeology Review, 14(28), 54–64. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2023.17684

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