Yigit Zafer Helvaci

Yigit Zafer Helvaci is a heritage scientist with a background in classics, archaeology, cultural heritage management, conservation science and archaeometry. He received his B.A. degree in Classics (Istanbul University, 2010) and holds the M.Sc. degree of the Erasmus – Mundus ArchMat, Archaeological Materials Sciences joint program (U. of Évora, Sapienza, Università di Roma and Aristotle U. of Thessaloniki, 2015). He worked in several projects in Greece, for the digital documentation of cultural heritage through photogrammetric techniques, in collaboration with the Museum of Byzantine Cultures – Thessaloniki, Architectural Conservation Laboratory of the University of West Attica – Athens, Global Heritage Fund and Archaeological Institute of America. In 2017 – 2018, he worked at the HERCULES Laboratory of the University of Évora as a junior researcher, for the characterisation and dating of mortars and building materials, noninvasive characterisation and documentation of mural paintings, and 3D modelling of several UNESCO – listed Portuguese monuments.
Through his tenure as a Marie Curie fellow of the UNITO – Tech4Culture program, he is working on the development of cultural heritage oriented protocols for the data acquisition and database construction of multi and hyper spectral imaging (MSI / HSI) data. His methodology includes 1) the creation and artificial ageing of mock-up pigment / paint samples, 2) their subsequent spectroscopic analyses and MSI – HSI imaging, 3) the acquisition of the spectral imaging datasets from real cultural heritage contexts for comparison, 4) and the consequential formation of an open – source spectral imaging database that can serve as a diagnostic tool within the conservation science community.

Tech4Culture fellow – Call 2 (2019)

Supervisor: Roberto Giustetto, Earth Sciences Department