From Reconstruction to Analysis. Re-use and re-purposing of 3D scan datasets obtained from ancient Greek marble sculpture

Abstract

The paper describes two related research projects concerning the sculptural decoration of a well-known classical Greek monument, the temple of Zeus at Olympia. Both projects are based on the same dataset, i.e. the 3D scans obtained from the original pieces of marble sculpture, but they are used for two completely different purposes. In the first section, a summary is given of the results concerning the virtual 3D reconstruction of the east pediment, the second part describes another research question, the identity of the so-called Olympia master and a new analytical method, which makes use of the possibilities offered by the digital datasets and may open up new perspectives for the traditional art historical analysis. Beside the re-using and re-purposing of the raw data, the 3D models are not the final output of the project, but they are used to enhance our knowledge in a new way, which would be hardly feasible with traditional methods.