Imagine earth 1000 years in the future. Has it changed? Is it recognizable? Do human beings still inhabit it?
Did the ancient Greeks and Romans ever wonder if, in a thousand years, people would look at their civilization and wonder what on earth all of their everyday items and buildings were used for? A stereotypical answer would probably be no, each believed its empire would last forever. Today, however, I look at what is left of ancient societies and wonder what people in 100 or 500 or 1000 years will think of our society. The same way we look at ancient customs and find them so strange people will find our practices just as strange. Our world is so technologically connected that we can communicate with anyone in the world in a matter of minutes. For the Ancient Greeks, communication took a matter of months or more. They were unaware of the existence of entire continents, while we have reached out beyond our own planet. When taking into consideration the remains left behing by other groups of people, research, excavations, and interpretations must be taken with a grain of salt. We are all subject to the bias of our own beliefs—meaning that each of us may see connections because we want to, not because they exist.
I am currently in Ancient Corinth with 3 other Duquesne students and our Professor, Dr. Katherine Rask. We have been in Greece since July 1, working on a project that will make ancient artifacts more accessible to people all over the world. The first week and a half was spent in Athens, working at the reconstructed Stoa of Attalos, which currently holds the museum and store rooms for the Athenian Agora. Then, we spent a few days on Santorini—enjoying the beauty of the island, but also its rich history. The entire island is a volcano that erupted and covered an ancient settlement which now is known as Acrotiri. The volcano’s magma chamber collapsed during the eruption and as a result the caldera was fill in with water, making for spectacular and unique natural features. For the last week, we have been in Ancient Corinth working in the museum store rooms. We spend several hours each day working to 3D scan artifacts and then piece them together in order to create a file which can be 3D printed. When we have finished, the materials will be posted on the museum’s websites as open source information, ideally so that anyone in the world with access to a 3D printer will be able to print them. We have also been doing research about the objects to help understand the significance of the artifacts in context with the excavations. Our artifacts are relevant to Greek religion and many were excavated at or near shrines.
The use of 3D scanning helps preserve these artifacts. Unfortunately, archaeology is by nature destructive. The more that I visit ancient sites, the more I see how it is true. Archaeology destroys stuff. Once sites have been excavated nature all but takes over. Grass and weeds grow over and quickly cover excavation sites. Air pollution causes sculpture and buildings to blacken. Without out fail, time will wear away what we have preserved. Sites like Acrotiri and Pompeii have remained well preserved because they were destroyed by a volcano. The remains that did not perish in the volcano were preserved by volcanic rocks. Some materials are removed to museums once excavated, but it is impossible to move everything. Not to mention, ethics and politics play a big role in whether artifacts can or should be moved from their original location. On top of that, putting artifacts in museums takes them out of their original context. This makes it harder for archaeologists, historians, or even tourists to have a full understanding of ancient history. We discover so much from ancient societies but it seems we leave destruction in our wake.
However, new technologies may be the key to changing that. The capability we have to store so much data means that a thousand years from now, people may be able to replicate ancient artifacts. The more details that can be preserved now, before time wears them away, the better access future scholars will have when trying to piece together the ancient world. Besides that, technology increases the access the world has to material to learn about the past. Most of what we know about ancient societies from excavations has been interpreted. It will never be the absolute truth, simply because we lack the capability to see more of ancient peoples than what they have left us. But the more that we leave artifacts exposed to nature, the more we are losing them. We lose interest in museums and become distracted by more interesting occupations. In part this is due to a cultural dependence on technology, but it also may have to do with the lack of proper information displayed at sites and museums. Several of the sites we visited have had very few signs explaining what a visitor might by looking at.
Our goal with 3D scanning is to save data now before it is lost. By letting the world access it, we are helping them to see and understand ancient peoples. Beyond that we are providing incredible opportunities for students all over the world to have physical access to artifacts without needing to travel halfway across the world. As a part of our class, we all have outreach communities who we are working with to make our research known. We will be providing them with some 3D printouts to use for teaching tools and each community will be using them for a different purpose. I am working with the center for epigraphical and paleographical studies at OSU so 3D models of inscriptions will be helpful for them. Some other outreach examples include the school for the blind, a middle school, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Each of these will have different goals and different uses for the 3D printouts.
While we have been spending a lot of time working to scan objects, plenty of time has also been spent enjoying the beautiful country of Greece. Ancient Corinth is home to many stray dogs who all seem to spend their time in the Platea, clustered around the tavernas. Many of the dogs are very friendly and just need someone to love them. It has been pretty difficult not to pet and play with all of them—the more we do it, the more they follow us back to our hotel.
Over the weekend we got the chance to go to the Corinth Bay and swim and relax at the beach. This week we walked around the archaeological site as well as going to see some of the current excavations. Last night, we went to see the full moon rise over the temple of Apollo. Mostly however, it seems like we just spend a lot of time eating. Our hotel provides us with a HUGE breakfast every morning that is honestly probably enough food for the entire day. It is all local, fresh, and delicious. The homemade apricot marmalade is pretty much to die for. Dinner might be even worse when it comes to portion size. We don’t even eat until 8 pm, but I’m pretty much still full from breakfast when I sit down to dinner. The food is all delicious.
Besides the food, there are some things left in Corinth that we still need to explore. Acrocorinth is a large hill on which medieval castle remains sit. Sometime in the next week we plan to take the hour long hike up to the top to see it. We also have plans to go back to the beach this weekend.
Its great being in Greece and experiencing the culture and the sites, but also getting to see so many ancient sites. With technology like what we are doing, hopefully we can start changing the way archaeology will be in the future. Even though these technologies are still developing, and still difficult to achieve on a large scale, every artifact that we have scanned will be recorded and accessible forever. It takes away the problem that exposure and time creates. 3D models can help to recreate items which are being destroyed by age, but also are excellent teaching tools for understanding context.
the debris field 