A Research on Ancient Greek Inscriptions Using Digital Tools: Case Study of Tanais

Today the usage of three-dimensional models is becoming popular in many sciences and epigraphy is no exception. In recent years researchers have increased interest in the usage of modern technologies of analyze and documentation of texts and images carved in stone, the description and application of such technologies particular work is devoted to. The corpus of the inscriptions of Tanais, which was previously documented by a group of students from the HSE and GAUGN under the leadership of Y. M. Svoisky and A.I. Ivanchik, was taken as material for the study. The work contains research on three-dimensional modeling as a tool for documentation and preservation of epigraphy and for their analysis: obtaining metric data, using surface geometry processing algorithms to create an unnatural texture to improve text visibility, virtual restoration, and reconstruction inscriptions. Due to the severe damage and fragmentation of most epigraphic inscriptions from this corpus, the set of tools offered by three-dimensional modeling can be extremely productive in the study of texts and an attempt to restore them, if not physically, then virtually at least.