At world-renowned Eton College, the Eton Meyers collection represents one of the world’s best private accumulations of ancient Egyptian art. Among the collection is one item of particular intrigue, a millennia old, mummified hand.
In and effort to give the mummified hand, and it’s constituent collection, greater exposure the University of Birmingham has 3D scanned and printed a full color replica of the severed appendage.
Using a MCOR IRIS printer the 3D laser scan of the hand was built from numerous slices of full color paper rendering a model that can be handled without fear of damaging the mummy’s delicate flesh.
According to Jing Lu, a member of Birmingham-based 3D printing workshop Black County Atelier, “Students who have seen the hand are amazed. There is a definite sense that you are connecting with another person across the ages, and that is very powerful. It brings the subject matter to life.”
What’s more Lu says a model can bring more life to an artifact, regardless of how long it’s been gone. “Handling a model provides so much more information than you can absorb from an object behind glass. For instance, you can tell that the ring on the hand was apparently painted on versus forged from metal, or attached by a string – a detail that would be impossible to see at a distance or in a photograph.”
As we’ve seen in the past museums are on the forefront of leveraging 3D printing technology. When combined with 3D scanners, 3D printers give museums the power to create immersive educational experiences, let alone their ability to resurrect the past!
Image Courtesy of MCOR