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PRINTING THE PAST

Innovative Technology in Archaeology

Artifacts and maps from Cetamura were reproduced through 3-D and laser scanning technology  printing for the  exhibition “Printing the Past: Innovative Technology in Archaeology,”  prepared at the Innovation Hub of Florida State University, and presented at the Dirac Science Library of FSU.   The exhibition was a project of the Student Archaeology Club of FSU, in collaboration with students in the FSU Classics Department and in particular in a course on the Archaeology of the Early Roman Empire taught by Dr. Nancy de Grummond (Fall, 2019).

Numerous students gained experience with planning, preparing and mounting a museum-type show.  The opening provided an occasion to show appreciation to Dr. Rodney Reeves, who has recently donated funding for museum internships in Italy and specifically at Cetamura. 

Officers from the Archaeology Club organized and directed the work:  Dawson Nunn, President; Taylor Cwikla,  Vice President; Hebe Clarke, Secretary; and Wyatt Haywood, Treasurer. Club volunteers  worked intensely in the early weeks of the fall to prepare around 30 items for display, and designed posters and labels for the show.  They even built the display pedestals by themselves. 

The exhibition included topographical maps of the hill of Cetamura, one made by laser scanning of wood  and another through papier mache, both having insertions of plastic 3-D printed walls of the Etruscan, Roman and Medieval buildings.  There were 3-D prints of Roman and Etruscan buckets from Well no. 1 at Cetamura, as well as ceramics and objects of bone and glass from daily life. 

Emphasis was on the Roman period, since the project was connected to the course in the Early Roman Empire. Also included for comparison were Roman antiquities based on finds at FSU excavation projects  at Cosa (Andrea DeGiorgi, director) and Corinth (Christopher Pfaff, director).   Allison Smith and Grace Robbins organized the display on Cosa, working with Matthew Hunter, a graduate of Classics who supervises a 3-D printing lab at FSU Strozier Library.