Digital scanning brings ancient Venetian artefacts to life
Digital scanning brings ancient
Venetian artefacts to life
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Original artefacts
3D printed replicas
'Holding history in your hands' may be the ideal way to understand the past more closely, but only a lucky few will have the opportunity to physically touch and experience ancient artefacts. Now, using the latest in digital scanning, 3D printing and virtual reality (VR) technology, researchers from WMG at The University of Warwick have devised an innovative solution.
Experts from The University of Warwick’s WMG Centre for Imaging, Metrology and Additive Technology (CiMAT) have collaborated with historians at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice to scan and analyse artefacts from ancient Roman and pre-Roman Venice, before bringing the collection to life using 3D printing and VR technology.
The goal? To revolutionise how people could experience historical items.
Most of us will have experienced a museum visit where we peer into a glass case to view an artefact. Now imagine a visit where you can touch, and closely examine, a replica of the same object. That is exactly what the latest advancements in technology and scanning techniques make possible. In addition to offering hands-on experience, this innovative new approach ensures delicate documents and artefacts can be examined by both professionals and the public.
The glass case paradigm
“It’s what’s known as ‘the glass case paradigm’,” explains Professor Mark Williams, Head of (CiMAT) and Academic Director of STEM Connect, who headed up the project alongside Associate Professor Lorenzo Calvelli, a historian at Ca’ Foscari.
Mark continues: “Even in a museum, most rare and ancient artefacts are safely kept in glass cases, as they’re too delicate to handle. There’s often the added challenge, as with our project, that archaeological items can be logistically and geographically difficult to access, so they may only be seen by a handful of experts. Using these techniques, though, we’ve been able to share ancient artefacts found at remote archaeological sites in the Dolomites with people around the world.”
An undiscovered trove
The collaboration between Warwick and Ca’ Foscari focused on more than 30 items related to religion from the Roman settlement of Altinum – the ancestor of the city of Venice. Altinum is larger than Pompeii but remains mostly unexcavated, with researchers suggesting a trove of artefacts may still be there, waiting to be discovered.
Some of the artefacts found by the team featured rare inscriptions in a pre-Roman dialect that has largely been lost to time. However, the inscriptions were difficult to read, as they were extremely worn due to their age.
WMG engineers Mike Donnelly (surface scanning and 3D printing), Joseph Benjamin (surface scanning), Dr Alex Attridge (visualisation) and Dr Paul Wilson (arts and heritage scanning specialist) used cutting-edge portable imaging technology to scan the items in incredibly high definition, helping historians from Ca’ Foscari to read and examine the damaged or fragmented items more easi
“It’s about having a collaborative mindset. The key is to start with a real-world challenge that can only be solved by working across academic disciplines, alongside people with different specialisms and perspectives."
Mark Williams, Head of (CiMAT) and Academic Director of STEM Connect
Virtual museums
The team from Warwick then visualised the artefacts using 3D printing and VR to create a ‘virtual museum’, launching the collection in a joint event held at Warwick Venice Centre, overlooking the city’s Grand Canal.
They hope this approach could be replicated in other educational and cultural contexts, broadening access to historical artefacts among people who don’t have the opportunity to experience them in person, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Associate Professor Lorenzo Calvelli, who first met Mark at a conference held at Warwick Venice Centre, said: “These artefacts represent the very beginnings of Venice from over two millennia ago, and we are very pleased to be able to bring this history to a wider audience, both here in Italy and in the UK.”
Professor Rachel Moseley, Vice-Provost and Chair of the Faculty of Arts at The University of Warwick, adds: “This is an excellent example of science and the arts working together to create exciting new possibilities. Every day, we see scientific advances allowing us to delve deeper into history in a way which only recently we would have thought was impossible.”
The scanning and visualisation technology has already benefited some of Warwick’s own students in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, who have examined inscriptions on similar artefacts as part of their studies via 3D printed replicas. WMG also uses examples of 3D printed artefacts in outreach work with school pupils interested in engineering, and at open days for prospective students, to show what can be achieved through imaging and visualisation technology.
A collaborative mindset
“It’s about having a collaborative mindset,” concludes Mark. “The key is to start with a real-world challenge that can only be solved by working across academic disciplines, alongside people with different specialisms and perspectives.
“Arts and Heritage has a wider purpose, so it naturally draws people together. Bringing it together with engineering expertise means we can create solutions that enhance and transform the way we experience our heritage. This is an example of the ways in which we're working together to make a better world through our education, research and innovation.”
Find out more about how our STEM Connect Programme is harnessing interdisciplinary research, close partnership collaboration and cross-faculty working to address real-world challenges.