From the Ashes: 2000-Year-Old Roman Statue Recreated with RP

By Susan Smith

2,000-year-old Herculaneum Amazon warrior

Preserved in the ashes from Mount Vesuvius that buried the nearby town of Pompeii in AD 79, a painted statue was recently discovered by the Herculaneum Conservation Project of the British School at Rome in the ruins of the town of Herculaneum.

  According to the Herculaneum Conservation Project website,  the little town of Herculaneum is remarkable because houses of several stories have survived under the ashes of the volcanic eruption, plus many items made of organic matter such as cloth,  wood and papyrus have been preserved. The fragility of these relics makes the site extremely difficult to preserve for future generations.

  In order to help with the preservation of relics, in particular, the Amazon warrior statue, UK scientists from WMG Solutions at the University of Warwick, the University of Southampton and the Herculaneum Conservation Project are involved in the digital restoration of the statue, which they believe to be representative of a wounded Amazon warrior. The statue is amazingly complete, with painted hair and eyes preserved by the ash.

CAD image of Herculaneum Amazon warrior laser scan.

Archaeologists at the University of Southampton initially contacted WMG and the Universityof Warwick and the Herculaneum Conservation Project after learning of their expertise in the areas of high resolution laser scanning, rapid prototyping and ultra-realistic computer graphics.

  A team led by Dr Mark Williams, a leader in laser measurement at WMG, traveled to the site with their equipment. Dr. Williams said that the statue is “an incredible find.” What makes it unusual, apart from its age, is that it has retained the original painted surface.

  To create the model, WMG placed the statue head out of its original context and into an open, near diffuse lit room. A Metris Coordinate Measuring Arm (Metris 7-axis MCA ]Manual Coordinate Arm]) was used to measure accurately within 0.05 of a millimeter) every surface of the bust, and that information was then translated into a computer model. The portability of the Metris device made it possible for scientists to use the arm both in laboratory conditions and in several types of field work.

Herculaneum Amazon warrior statue being laser scanned.

Selected to gather the geometrical data for the statue head was the emerging non-contact laser scanning probe (Metris ModelMaker D50 Single Stripe Scanner). The point cloud was generated by using the MMD50 in combination with the Metris MCA manual measuring arm, with a system accuracy of between 50-60 microns, producing a realistic virtual representation of the statue.

  After scanning the entire surface of the artifact to produce a complete point cloud, a finite element mesh was constructed. The resulting 3D model is comprised of small, triangular facets. All scans taken were optimized to ensure that there were no stepped surfaces and the point cloud was filtered to a point spacing of 0.3mm. To ensure surface definition, boundary points were inserted and small holes in the mesh were filled using curvature analysis,  using Metris Kube software.

  From that computer model, Dr. Greg Gibbons, also of WMG,  used rapid prototyping to create a physical 3D model of the head, which revealed the most intricate details. Magic RP from Materialise N.V. was used for manipulating the model. To prepare the model for stereolithography and in order to reduce the RP build time and weight of the model, the surface model was hollowed to create a 3mm wall thickness shell. Next a hole was made in the base surface to allow resin to drain from the hollow part after construction. An SLA 5000 system from 3D Systems with Watershed 11122 XC resin from DSM Somos was used to create the RP model. The layer thickness of the model was 0.1mm.

Rapid prototype model of the Amazon warrior

Other experts in archaeological computing onsite, led by Dr. Graeme Earl, recorded more details with photography that provided highly detailed information on the texture and color of the painted surfaces.

“Cutting edge techniques are vital to the recording of cultural heritage material, since so much remains unstudied or too fragile to analyze,” said Earl. “Our work at Southampton attempts to bridge the gap between computing and archaeology in bringing the best that colleagues in engineering have to offer to unique artifacts from our past. Painted statues from this period are unusual and digital technologies offer a host of new possibilities to researchers in archaeology. Over the coming year we will be working with experts in Roman sculpture and painting from around the world in order to produce the most accurate simulations possible.”

  The digital remodeling and repainting of the sculpture is now being accomplished by the Southampton team, who are using film industry techniques for the recreation of the original carved and painted surfaces.

  WMG’s visualization team, headed by Professor Alan Chalmers,  an expert in ultra-realistic graphics, will ultimately add to the model techniques to replicate the lighting and environmental conditions under which the painted statue would have originally been created and displayed.

  Scientists will be able to use this visualization and 3D model to see how the original statue might have looked and was admired in its time. Also, the model will provide a record for conservators and scientists seeking further research into the statue’s design.

More Info:
WMG Solutions
Universityof Warwick
Coventry,UK

Universityof Southampton
Southampton,UK

British School at Rome
Herculaneum Conservation Project
Rome, Italy

Metris
Leuven, Belgium

Materialise, NV
Leuven, Belgium

DSM Somos
New Castle,DE

3D Systems Corporation
Rock Hill,SC

Susan Smith is a contributing editor for Desktop Engineering magazine. She has been an editor and writer for the technology industry for more than 15 years and resides in Santa Fe, NM. Send e-mail about this article to [email protected].