8. 3D Modelling

3D Modelling: Archaeological reconstruction and 3D printing

SunoikisisDC Digital Approaches to Cultural Heritage: Session 8

Date: Thursday March 7, 2024. 16:00-17:30 GMT.

Convenors: Gabriel Bodard, Michael Donnay (University of London), Orly Lewis (Hebrew University Jerusalem)

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/ivDhSfuEiws

Slides: Combined slides (PDF)

Outline

This session introduces 3D modelling, the production of a 3D reconstruction of a lost, damaged or conjectured object or structure (as contrasted to imaging, which technologically captures an existing object). In cultural heritage, broken objects may be reconstructed, lost buildings may be rebuilt from foundations, ruins or depictions using CAD software, and artefacts or bodies may be built according to the descriptions of ancient texts. Such reconstructions draw on a range of types of evidence and scholarly judgement, and therefore a detailed documentation and apparatus criticus of the model is a scholarly imperative. The session includes case studies, and a tutorial on the reconstruction of a building from ancient Pompeii using the Sketchup software. There will also be a brief discussion of other lightweight tools for modelling, including TinkerCAD, and the different requirements when modelling for 3D printing.

Required readings

• Daniele Ferdani, Emanuel Demetrescu, Marco Cavalieri, Gloriana Pace, Sara Lenzi. 2019. “3D Modelling and Visualization in Field Archaeology. From Survey To Interpretation Of The Past Using Digital Technologies.” Groma 4 (2019). Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.12977/groma26.
• Vitale, V. 2023. “Ceci n’est pas un temple. Visual secondary sources between representation and documentation.” In: Palladino, C. and Bodard, G. (Eds.), Can’t Touch This: Digital Approaches to Materiality in Cultural Heritage. Pp. 9–28. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bcv.b.

Further readings

• Denard, Hugh (2012). “A New Introduction to the London Charter.” In A. Bentkowska-Kafel, D. Baker & H. Denard (eds.) Paradata and Transparency in Virtual Heritage, Digital Research in the Arts and Humanities Series (Ashgate) 57-71. Available: http://www.londoncharter.org/introduction.html
• Favro, Diane, and Johanson, Christopher (2010). "Death in motion: Funeral processions in the Roman forum." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 69.1 : 12-37. Available: https://jsah.ucpress.edu/content/69/1/12 (online version, with high quality images and multimedia content), https://jsah.ucpress.edu/content/ucpjsah/69/1/12.full.pdf (pdf version, for printing)
• Favro, Diane (2012), “Se non è vero, è ben trovato (If Not True, It Is Well Conceived): Digital Immersive Reconstructions of Historical Environments.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 71.3, pp. 273-77. Available: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/jsah.2012.71.3.273 (not Open Access)
• Gabellone, Francesco (2015). "Digital Technologies and Communication: Prospects and Expectations." Open Archaeology 1.1. Available: https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2015-0005
• Huurdeman, Hugo and Piccoli, Chiara. 2021. "3D Reconstructions as Research Hubs: Geospatial Interfaces for Real-Time Data Exploration of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam Domestic Interiors" Open Archaeology 7(1), pp. 314-336. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0142
• Lewis, Orly, Yael Baron, Dmitry Ezrohi, Yotam Giladi, Shay Hermon, Nir Propper, Marco Vespa “Digital Imaging and the History of Medicine”. Contribution to the online international exhibition Comparative Guts (Curator: Chiara Thumiger, CAU Kiel University, 2023). Available: https://comparative-guts.net/digital-imaging-and-history-of-medicine/
• Opitz, Rachel S., & Johnson, Tyler D. 2016. “Interpretation at the controller’s edge: Designing graphical user interfaces for the digital publication of the excavations at Gabii (Italy).” Open Archaeology 1(1). Available: https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opar.2016.2.issue-1/opar-2016-0001/opar-2016-0001.xml
• Piccoli, Chiara (2018). “3.2.2 Procedural Modelling” (pp. 55–50) & “3.4 The scientific value of 3D reconstructions” (pp. 67-87). Visualizing Cityscapes of Classical Antiquity: From Early Modern Reconstruction Drawings to Digital 3D Models. Oxford: Archaeopress. Available: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/download/9781784918897.
• Piccoli, C. (2023). Home-Making in 17th Century Amsterdam: A 3D Reconstruction to Investigate Visual Cues in the Entrance Hall of Pieter de Graeff (1638–1707). In: Landeschi, G., Betts, E. (eds) Capturing the Senses. Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Springer, Cham. Available: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23133-9_10.
• Vespa, M., Giladi, Y., Marroquin Arroyave, E., Caino L., Milgram, J., Lewis, O., “Aristotle's Respiratory System – 3D Model,” in Lewis, O. et al., ATLOMY. Greco-Roman Anatomy Atlas (v. 1.1, 6/2023). Available: https://www.atlomy.com/three-d-model/aristotle_respiratory%20system_04082023_1559.glb/47.
  • Consider together with: Vespa, M., “Aristotle's Respiratory System: Discussion,” in Lewis, O. et al., ATLOMY. Greco-Roman Anatomy Atlas https://www.atlomy.com/model-details/47 (2023) (which explains the model and the research informing it).
• Valeria Vitale. 2016. “Transparent, Multivocal, Cross-disciplinary: The Use of Linked Open Data and a Community-developed RDF Ontology to Document and Enrich 3D Visualisation for Cultural Heritage.” In: Bodard/Romanello, Digital Classics Outside the Echo-Chamber: Teaching, Knowledge Exchange & Public Engagement. Pp. 147–168. London: Ubiquity Press. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/bat.i
• Watterson, Alice (2015). "Beyond Digital Dwelling: Re-thinking Interpretive Visualisation in Archaeology." Open Archaeology 1.1. Available: https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2015-0006

Resources

• eMousike: Ancient Greek Music for the 21st Century
• Atlomy
• Virtual Interiors
• Sketchup Web
• TinkerCAD

Exercise

We recommend using the free Sketchup Web for this exercise. You will need to create a free account and login to use the online modelling features.

Note: this exercise was written for Sketchup Make 2017, the free version of the Sketchup Desktop application. This version is now unsupported, but you can still find free downloads of the old version online (e.g. Mac, Windows). You may also try out the 30-day trial version of Sketchup Pro, but equally you may find some of the functionality assumed in the tutorial is very slightly different or missing. This should not impact on your ability to complete the exercise.

1. Following the introductory demo in this week's video and the PDF instructions by Valeria Vitale, work through as much of the model of the Ekklesiasterion of the Iseum in Pompeii as you can. Save your progress regularly!

Documentation of the Ekklesiasterion model:

• PDF with photographic and other documentation for the Ekklesiasterion
• Textures for the Ekklesiasterion exercise (zip format)

Further video tutorials if needed:

• Introduction to Sketchup and some simple actions (19 min) (Gabriel Bodard)
• Sketchup walkthrough of building (9 min) (Alicia Walsh)
• Sketchup walkthrough of building roof (4 min) (Alicia Walsh)
• Sketchup walkthrough of texturing (4 min) (Alicia Walsh)
• Sketchup walkthrough of importing objects (4 min) (Alicia Walsh)
• Alternative, longer tutorial at SunoikisisDC 2019 (starts at 53:06) (Valeria Vitale)
• Full walkthrough of Ekklesiasterion exercise in Sketchup Make 2017 (42 min) (Coré Ferrer-Alcantud)

Optional exercise

If you completed the practice above, you may like to try modelling another building without such a detailed walkthrough. You will need to find floor-plans, dimensions and preferably photographs in the archaeological literature. If you prefer, you may find some building plans in the two publications herebelow:

1. Mycaenean Tomb beneath the Middle Stoa; see especially Figure 1 and Plate 1a as the basis for your model.
2. Roman Villa Gardens pick any of the figures, depending on how ambitious you want to be! (3.2, 3.5, 3.11 may be at the more manageable end of the scale.)