Developing a 3D digital heritage ecosystem: from object to representation and the role of a virtual museum in the 21st century

This article addresses the application of high precision 3D recordation methods to heritage materials (portable objects), the technical processes involved, the various digital products and the role of 3D recordation in larger questions of scholarship and public interpretation. It argues that the acquisition and creation of digital representations of heritage must be part of a comprehensive research infrastructure (a digital ecosystem) that focuses on all of the elements involved -- including (a) recordation methods and metadata, (b) digital object discovery and access, (c) citation of digital objects, (d) analysis and study, (e) digital object reuse and repurposing and (f) the critical role of a national/international digital archive. The article illustrates these elements and their relationships using two case studies that involve similar approaches to the high precision 3D digital recordation of portable archaeological objects, from a number of late pre--]Columbian villages and towns in the mid-central US (circa 1400 CE) and from the Egyptian site of Amarna, the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten's capital (circa 1300 BCE).