Documenting cultural heritage sites and objects to the highest possible standards.

Deccan Heritage Foundation (DHF), in collaboration with the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation, is undertaking a landmark digital restoration and documentation project at the mausoleum of Ahmed I Shah Wali (AD 1436) in the royal necropolis of the Bahmanis in Ashtoor, Bidar.

Famous for its unique paintings, this mausoleum—the first royal tomb of the Bahmanis in the newly established capital—was started in this verdant valley by Ahmad Shah and completed by his son and successor Allauddin Ahmad II soon after his enthronement. The non-invasive recording and planned digital restoration by Factum Foundation will bring together heritage expertise and advanced digital technologies to record and preserve one of the most significant monuments of the Deccan and the Bahmani period.

From 3 to 17 January 2026, Imran Khan and Teresa Casado are carrying out the complete recording of the tomb using LiDAR scanning, high-resolution photogrammetry, and colour panoramic photography to create a comprehensive and precise digital record of its paintings. The combination of these non-invasive techniques is able to capture architectural details, surface conditions, and spatial data with exceptional accuracy. The resulting digital archive will support future conservation, research, and interpretation efforts while ensuring long-term preservation of the monument’s material and artistic legacy.

During the recording process, two students from the Deccan Studies Programme 2025 are being trained on site by Factum Foundation’s experts, with mentorship and institutional support from DHF. This hands-on engagement reinforces both Factum Foundation’s and DHF’s commitment to capacity building and transfer of skills, enabling emerging scholars to gain direct experience in heritage documentation techniques.
Through this collaboration, made possible through the generous support of an anonymous donor, DHF continues to advance an integrated model of conservation—one that combines technology, scholarship, and training to safeguard the cultural heritage of the Deccan for future generations.

In November and December 2025, a team from Factum Foundation carried out the high-resolution recording of the Amphipolis Tomb on the hill of Kasta, in Greece. This monumental funerary complex, dating back more than 2,300 years, is considered one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of recent decades. Over the course of two weeks, and under the direction of Dr Hariclia Brecoulaki, Factum Foundation’s team systematically recorded the tomb’s elaborate architectural elements and decorative features using a combination of non-invasive technologies.

The project forms part of AmphiPoly, a major research initiative commissioned by the Greek Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the National Hellenic Research Foundation (EIE) and the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” (NCSR-D). The comprehensive digital data will support an informed reconstruction of the monument’s original appearance, including its polychromy and iconography across all chronological phases. Through archaeometric analysis, advanced imaging techniques, and historical-archaeological research, the project aims to create a three-dimensional digital visualisation and restoration of the monument.

In addition to physical facsimiles of the three priority elements (the Sphinx façade, the mosaic with reconstructed centre, and the Lion with its base), the AmphiPoly project will also release the digital models and virtual-reality (VR) videos for museum use. These will be displayed in a new museum and exhibition space currently under construction at the site, providing visitors with an innovative, immersive experience that allows them to explore the monument’s architectural and decorative elements interactively and visualise the archaeometric data underpinning the restoration of its decoration.

Factum Foundation recently completed a significant digital conservation project in collaboration with the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, documenting six anatomical paintings attributed to Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal and painter Ramón Padró y Pedret.

These 150 × 100 cm oil paintings, originally created as teaching aids depicting intricate neurological structures, were captured using advanced panoramic photography techniques before and after restoration. The high-resolution documentation—created through hundreds of individual images per canvas—now provides researchers and conservators worldwide with unprecedented access to these works through online viewers.

Factum also produced facsimiles from the digital files to aid in the preservation of the originals and facilitate future exhibitions. The project was supported by Pedro Ramón y Cajal, with the results published in a bilingual publication curated by Silvia García Fernández-Villa for Editorial Complutense and Fundación Ramón y Cajal Abogados.

On 9-10 December, Adam Lowe was the keynote speaker at the International Conference on Digital Heritage 2025, organised by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Heritage Commission, taking place in Riyadh. Additionally, Factum Foundation was invited to participate in the event with a series of practical and theoretical sessions which will be presented by Carlos Bayod, Nuria Medina and Santiago del Bosque, covering diverse aspects of digital preservation, technological development, training and dissemination.

For the first time, high-resolution 3D data acquired with the Selene Photometric Stereo System has been combined with hyperspectral imaging data produced by the Institute of Heritage Sciences (INCIPIT), a research organisation within the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Hyperspectral imaging can identify pigments with precision through spectral analysis—essentially reading the unique “fingerprint” of each colour. Bringing together these two approaches to capturing data opens new possibilities for studying cultural heritage without ever touching the objects themselves. It is now possible to consider how certain pigments create specific surface textures, how they interact with different binding materials and analyse the interaction between the way an image is built up and its final appearance.

The first work under study is a miniature (folio 15) from the Tumbo Menor de Castilla, a manuscript of significant importance held at the Archivo Histórico Nacional in Spain. Factum recently made a facsimile of the whole manuscript, donated to the Monastery of Uclés last June by the Fundación Fernando Núñez.