云冈石窟的“驻颜”之路
石窟现存大小窟龛254个，主要洞窟45座，造像59000余尊，代表了五世纪世界雕刻艺术的最高水平。
令人惋惜的是，随着时间的流逝，洞窟每一天都在老化和衰败。据测算，自然状态下，洞窟每平方米每年平均有超过10立方厘米砂岩剥落。这看似微不足道，但是细小的变化在积年累月之后也会变得十分可观。
为了更好地保护石窟，云冈石窟研究院正通过数字化技术将石窟的信息进行数字化复制。此外，一个超级计算中心将于2021年落成。
据云冈石窟研究院数字中心主任宁波介绍，该计算中心每秒能够执行234万亿次计算，将用来存储和处理三维扫描过程中产生的海量数据。此外，该计算中心还有望在新软件的帮助下探索数字化的其他功能。
宁波主任表示，有了数据的积累，就能够对雕塑的衰退进行预测，这能够为石窟的修复提供决策依据，同时有助于推断出石窟在不同时期的外观。
China's Yungang Grottoes will have a supercomputing center in 2021, as researchers race against time to rebuild the 1,500-year-old caves in the virtual world as part of conservation efforts.
Located at the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute in north China's Shanxi Province, the new facility is described as the first supercomputing center in China's archaeological sector.
Capable of performing 234 trillion calculations per second, the center will store and process the huge amounts of data generated during the three-dimensional scanning of the Buddhist caves, said Ning Bo, director of the institute's digitization office.
自2003年起，联合国教科文组织世界遗产委员会便开始对名录上的45个主要洞窟和59000多座石雕进行数字化处理。
近年来，用于石窟数字化的技术在不断更新，一些设备的分辨率可以达到每毫米12个像素。
当下，云冈石窟采用近景摄影测量、手持三维激光扫描、站式三维激光扫描三种采集方式，依次对每个石窟开展数字化采集、建模及3D打印复原，保存住云冈石窟的真实信息。未来，3D打印的洞窟将进行全球巡展。
据悉，云冈石窟数字化团队中有不少“90后”。他们中很少有人拥有类似的工作经历，专业背景也不尽相同，是对石窟的喜爱与好奇将他们凝聚在了一起。
第十一窟数字化项目负责人潘鹏说，文物数字化是一个比较新的领域，目前国内还没有相关专业，这些成员带来的各行各业的经验，有助于互相补充，探索出一套行之有效的方法。
“扫”窟不是一件轻松的事，对体力要求很高，工作人员经常一蹲就是大半天，身体也不能有大幅度动作。在集中采集数据的阶段，团队成员们经常需要交替上夜班，隔天才能回家一次。
Since 2003, the UNESCO World Heritage Site has started the digitization of its 45 major caves and more than 59,000 stone statues that are threatened by weathering. Drones and handheld scanners have been used to record details of the historic Buddhist artworks, paving the way for their 3D digital reconstruction.
In recent years, more advanced technologies have been employed to capture the complex designs of the grottoes, with the resolution reaching about 12 pixels per 1 mm.
Apart from building a data pool, the AI-powered supercomputing center is also expected to explore other functions of digitization with the help of new software.
"With accumulated data, we will be able to predict how sculptures may decay over time, thus informing our decision-making on repair methods," said Ning. "We can even deduce their historical appearance from long-term monitoring data."
China is striving to create digital versions of ancient grottoes that are plagued by weathering and other irreversible damage. The Longmen Grottoes in central Henan Province initiated a digitization project in 2005 and 80 percent of its grottoes have been scanned in a three-dimensional way.
为长久保留石窟寺文化遗产，中国文物保护基金会于今年启动了专门的石窟寺数字化保护项目，探索更多数字化保护利用方式。
作为数字化起步较早、技术较为成熟的石窟寺，云冈石窟正在走出去，帮助其他文物单位建立数字档案。
知识延展
“石窟”的正名是石窟寺，它是中国古代建筑中非常重要的类型，绝大部分石窟都是佛寺。比如云冈石窟，在《魏书》或者《水经注》里称作“武周山石窟寺”或“灵岩寺”。