CONTEXTUALIZATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE OBJECTS THROUGH AN INTERACTIVE PLATFORM AS A TOOL FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION

In the modern context, cultural heritage is mostly perceived as expansive ruins preserved by the many archaeological sites across the world, numerous artifacts presented behind the glasses of museum collections, and pieces of information about separate objects, periods, persons, and places usually presented stand-alone or with only a hinted connection to their historical, geographical and other context.

Forced by the large amount of information for analysis and further exploration, the scientific research since the beginning of its formal existence is split into specific, often narrow, areas. Such an approach allows in-depth study and research, but reduces the access to the broader context of the researched object that an interdisciplinary attitude would provide.

With the development of the Information Technologies it is possible to incorporate explored objects of research in their historical, geographical and cultural context through a broad set of instruments such as digitalization, 3D animation and digital reconstructions, and combine the innovative IT with already existing and constantly updated data bases of static textual information.

This paper explores the different existing IT tools and data bases that present historical and cultural heritage objects, and develops the concept of contextualization through an interactive platform as a research and education instrument.