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3-D printing

3-D printing recreates ancient sculpture destroyed by ISIS

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
3-D printing
3-D printing has advanced to the point that it can be used in many industries and applications, including antiquities restoration. Shown here is an Audi RSQ film car that was 3D-printed by rapid prototyping industrial KUKA robots. Image by Eirik Newth, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

LONDON (AP) – A figure of a roaring lion, about the size of a loaf of bread, is the latest step in the fight to preserve culture from conflict.

The sculpture is a replica of a colossal 3,000-year-old statue from Nimrud, in what is now Iraq. The stone statue was one of many artifacts from the Mosul Museum destroyed by the Islamic State group after it overran the city in 2014.

The replica, which can be viewed online, was modeled from crowd-sourced photos taken by Mosul Museum visitors in happier times and 3D-printed as part of a Google-backed project.

It’s going on display at London’s Imperial War Museum in an exhibition that looks at how war devastates societies’ cultural fabric – and at the often heroic steps taken to preserve it.

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