Infrared image analysis and elaboration for archaeology: The case study of a medieval “capsella” from Cimitile, Italy

Infrared reflectography, i.e. the use of images taken with infrared light, is currently applied in the field of cultural heritage mainly for paintings analysis to reveal the presence of underdrawings or alterations. Its use in archaeology for deciphering faded signs (texts, images, tattoos, etc.) is a lot more limited and in most cases no or simple data analysis and elaboration is performed. Here we show that infrared reflectography taken by using a wide spectral response (wavelength range from 400 to 2200 nm) VIDICON image acquisition system together with adequate postelaboration, taking advantage from advanced techniques for data analysis (wavelet decomposition) and image registration and fusion, is able to produce high-quality ‘C&IR’ images. Such images can be obtained in a relatively easy way using the same hardware configuration generally used for infrared reflectographic analysis of paintings. The application to a medieval capsella (a small wooden relics container) from Cimitile, Italy, has shown that these results are of great interest for archaeologists.