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June 1, 2008
3D Imaging and the Problem with Photos and Casts
I intended to write on this when it first appeared but somehow I didn't get around to it. An Italian team is working to make three-dimensional models of clay tablets from Bagdad's museums. You can read about it on the Discovery Channel's website. The technique generates electronically portable 3D-images from which a prototyping system can produce replica tablets. This is a good idea but because of its cost I doubt that the entire half million or so clay tablets in Iraqi museums will ever be imaged (this says nothing of the equal or greater number of tablets scattered around the world at various other collections, legitimate and otherwise, and the five million tablets that some think are still be awaiting excavation.)
The major down side is that not everyone has a prototyping system handy to convert the electronic files to near exact replicas of the tablets, ready for study. There are a couple of reasons that photographs alone often just don't cut it. First, and least significant, the scribes wrote from the top of the tablet, around the bottom edge and onto the back and even onto the lower edge of the back. They also often wrote on or around both ends of the tablets. For this reason, multiple photographs from various angles are required. More important is a corollary to Murphy's Law that dictates that the light will always come from the least helpful direction at the most difficult to read place on the tablet. Even with photographs from several angles, one often needs to be able to hold the tablet or a very good 3D replica of the tablet and move it around to read these difficult places.
People have been making dental casts of tablets for a very long time. I have a complete set of casts of the Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets along with one or two others on my bookshelf. But the process of making the usual latex mold can be tedious and even destructive.
I have no memory of how it happened, I wasn't directly involved, but when I was studying these tablets a couple of weeks ago I noticed one of them, RS_1957.2 (obv.), may have been repaired between being photographed for publication and having a mold made. The top photo to the left is of a small section of the cast. You can see an oval shaped area with one complete sign (a BI/KAŠ sign if you are interested) and a second incomplete sign below it, perhaps a ŠÁ sign. This oval shaped area is slightly raised. Below the picture of the cast is a scan of the published photo of the tablet in the same region. While grainy and poorly lit, there is no indication of the raised oval area. Whatever happened, it may have happened during the baking process or during some other preparation or study but before the technician make the actual latex mold. In any case, it looks like the tablet was slightly chipped before the mold was made. The repair seems fairly good but not quite perfect.
The point is that things happen, done of them good, when people handle tablets. The 3D laser imagining technique, while requiring some handling, could greatly reduce this problem.
Another thing that can happen is that the mold making process itself can go bad. Below is a picture of a Neo-Assyrian tablet, used to practice mold making. As you can see, something went very wrong.
This post is an expanded version of a comment I left on afarensis' blog. This Australopithecus blogger reminded me to post my reflections on the new imaging project.
Posted by Duane Smith at June 1, 2008 8:35 PM | Read more on Akkadian |
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