Methods of Studying and Preserving Cultural Heritage (Based on the Novgorod University’s Experience)

Borovikov, Yuri Sergeevich
D.Sc. in Technics, Professor, Rector of the Yaroslav-the-Wise Novgorod State University, Veliky Novgorod, Russia
borovikov@novsu.ru

Abstract
The preservation of cultural heritage is one of the priorities of modern society, especially in the Novgorod land, whose rich cultural heritage, monuments of architecture and writing are the basis of modern world culture.
Within the framework of the strategic project of NovSU University as a Cultural Identity’s Generator, university researchers apply modern high-tech methods in various interdisciplinary studies aimed at studying and preserving cultural heritage objects.
In the laboratory for BIM technologies of NovSU (A.S. Varenik), information modeling and laser scanning technologies are used; digital copies of objects in the form of point clouds are created, on the basis of which information parametric models are developed. These models of monuments are used by architects and restorers.
Currently, the laboratory for BIM technologies of NovSU actively cooperates with the Novgorod and Ryazan Museums-reserves, the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as design and restoration organizations of Russia.
The Engineering School for Diagnostics and Industrial Safety’s staff (E.A. Zernin) apply a methodology for the study of nonmetals, which allows you to look “inside” antiquities without destroying their integrity. The capabilities of the digital radiography complex make it possible to study the object under study with an accuracy of 0.1 mm.
In the preservation of cultural heritage, the researchers working in this School cooperate with other ones within the preservation of cultural identity’s project.
On the basis of the Laboratory for Technical Vision (V.M. Gareev), a Center for Technical Research of Cultural Heritage Objects has been created: its purpose is to study the manuscripts of the Novgorod Museum-Reserve, their restoration and digitization. The equipment created in the laboratory and the developed methods of preserving cultural values will allow the Novgorod Museum-Reserve to restore and digitize the most valuable monuments of the Novgorod script.
The equipment designed in the laboratory for research and digitization, as well as the methods of preserving cultural values developed by the laboratory's specialists, will allow the Novgorod Museum-Reserve to preserve, explore and make available to everyone the most valuable monuments of the Novgorod script.


Keywords: cultural heritage, methods of cultural preservation, Novgorod University, interdisciplinary laboratories, academic collaboration