3D Printing Preserving Cultural Heritage

Here at 3D Rapid Print, one of the fastest growing 3D Printing companies in the Thames Valley, we like to keep abreast of the latest innovations in 3D printing.

Circa April 2018, multinational technology company Google LLC of Mountain View, California debuted its collaboration with 3D printing company Stratasys of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and CyArk of Oakland, California, preserving 3D scans and 3D printings of some of the world’s greatest heritage sites. CyArk is a self-proclaimed “non profit [sic] organization founded in 2003 to digitally record, archive and share the world’s most significant cultural heritage and ensure that these places continue to inspire wonder and curiosity for decades to come.” Google’s so-called “Open Heritage Project” allows one to virtually explore sites from all over the world, such as Myanmar’s Bagan; the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin, Germany; and Chichén Itzá in Yucatán, Mexico.

Circa July 2014, The Egyptian Museum of Berlin collaborated with the Institute for Mathematics at the Technische Universitaet (also of Berlin) to make a 3D printed replica crown for a bust of Queen Tiye, who was Great Royal Wife to pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother to Akhenaten and grandmother to Tutankhamun. The bust was made circa 1350 BC and a moulded copy of it was made in the 1960s via gelatine casting. Queen Tiye’s crown was too fragile to similarly replicate and wasn’t discovered to be in the museum’s collection until after the replica of the bust was made.

3D scanning and 3D printing have also been used to preserve and restore works of art and historical artefacts destroyed by ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. For example, circa July 2016, crowdsourced cultural preservation project Rekrei unveiled a collection of 3D printed replica artefacts at the seventh-floor gallery of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York that were destroyed when militants from the transnational Sunni insurgent group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant raided the Mosul Museum of Iraq in February 2015. One of the destroyed objects was a limestone Assyrian lion statue that was carved circa 860 BC.

3D printing is an amazing tool. It can grow your small business or start a mini revolution in an industry. Explore what it can do for you when you contact us today.

Disclaimer: The author of the featured image of “Chichen Itza Castillo (Catherwood)” died in 1854, ergo the featured image is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author’s life plus 100 years or less.