3D Scanning the Battle of Borodino

The Russian Academy of science has enlisted the help of 3D scanners to preserve and commemorate the Russian Army’s triumph over Napoleon Bonaparte.

On September 7, 1812 Napoleon’s forces attempted to break the Russian Army in a battle just 125km from Moscow. Called the Battle of Borodino, the skirmish was one of the deadliest of the Napoleonic Wars, resulting in 70,000 casualties.  As it turned out, Napoleon briefly captured Moscow before retreating and abandoning his Russian campaign.

To commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the battle, the Russian Academy of Sciences has commissioned 3D firm Artec to aid in the excavation and digital restoration of the Battle of Borodino.

According to Artec, its main task was to scan the entire human and horse remains that still lay on a single section of the battlefield. “Traditionally, archeologists use photography, as well as pen-and-paper, to document their findings. Using an Artec MHT scanner, we were able to not only document the objects/subjects we found during excavation, but we could also measure any part of the scene months after we left the site.”

The Artec site, which contained 38 war-horses and 11 soldiers, was scanned in 1-hour. Most incredibly, the resulting scans were so accurate that the archeologists could clearly detect a bullet hole in one soldier’s skull.

With all of this rich data we hope that the Russian Academy of Sciences will decide that these scans deserve to be 3D printed. Given that reliefs have been used to commemorate seminal moments since stone could be turned to sculpture, this 21^st century relief would fit neatly into that chronology.

Images Courtesy of Artec