Articles by Davide Delpiano

In the past few years, the application of digital techniques to archaeology has strongly increased, including 3D recording of lithic artefacts for purposes of documentation and analysis. In this paper, the main acquisition techniques are reviewed focusing on their application to lithics, and on the cost-benefit analysis which largely depends on the research objectives. The introduction of the main functions of the virtual approaches to lithics comes from the new possibilities offered in the area of graphic documentation. In fact, 3D models could gradually replace the archaeological drawing thanks to the data objectivity and to the ability to undergo remote analysis. Indeed, in virtual models complex metric data and technological information are easily recorded. Furthermore, 3D models allow the application of quantitative and statistical analysis for different aims, such as reduction intensity estimation and geometric morphometrics, especially thanks to the landmark-based approach. All these potentials have been already explored in recent years, some of them have produced a considerable number of publications. However, this diversification needs the sharing of Open Data protocols in order to evaluate the methods, as well as the application of integrated approaches. Some examples of integration between traditional and 3D analyses derive from traceology and refitting studies, where the virtual tool is not considered as replacing but complementary. Finally, the options in the fields of data storage and cataloguing have been addressed, besides the free circulation of 3D models for academic and museological purposes, including 3D printing.