Taking Digitization to the Next Level

CNET.com published an article, Bringing the past into high-resolution view, about the high tech and creative ways the Israel Antiquities Authority, is digitizing their collections to make them more accessible and help researchers learn more about our past than we ever thought possible. Libraries and museums have worked on digitization efforts to preserve materials and artifacts and to bring collections to light through online catalogs highlighting unique items and rarities such as the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

Another project the IAA has been involved in is using a 3D printer to produce replicas of their delicate pottery. The analysis program is called Pottery3D. It creates very fine detail of the originals that the researchers have been able to pick up minute distinctions in the patterns that can point to mobility in tribes, ethnic origins, and whether a piece was made for royalty or peasants. This has allowed researchers to dig even deeper in the past and discover new connections and ways to look at the past.