SCOPUS 2017

in 3D
Using these 3D models Prof. Grosman and her research team were
able to ascertain that masks from Judea and possibly Samaria circa
-7000 BCE during the Neolithic period were worn on the faces of
living people rather than used as ritual mark of death– ascertainably in
some kind of ceremony- even though the masks represent skulls rather
than faces.
The technology has also allowed archeologists to differentiate
between objects manufactured in two different potters’ workshops
from the same village and to discern the individual finger styles of
different potters. One of Prof. Grosman’s doctoral students, Ortal
Harush is using the 3D technology to outline the learning curve of a
potter’s progression—an extraordinary and previously unobtainable
revealing detail about these ancient vessels.
Harush is working with students at Bezalel Academy of Arts and
Design on the research, presenting just one example of the large
number of partnerships that the Lab has fostered.
Initially, archeologists around the world were reluctant to embrace
this new technology, but their hesitations diminished as they came to
appreciate the vast possibilities offered through 3D analysis. Today,
most archeological centers in Israel use the Hebrew University’s
technique, as do universities across the globe, including the University
of San Diego, the Sorbonne in Paris, the Monrepos Archaeological
Center in Neuwied Germany and Russia’s Siberian Federal University.
“In the beginning it was difficult to convince traditional archeology
about the value of 3D analysis,” Prof. Grosman said, “but now the
adoption rate is ‘exponential.’”
Tens of thousands of artifacts have now been scanned as researchers
send their objects to the Lab to be documented. With this huge and
growing repository, Prof. Grosman wants to develop an algorithm
that will sort through all the data and help archeologists more easily
classify their artifacts, and possibly indicate hitherto unknown
relationships between different peoples in the ancient world.
“You will have an artifact. You will go to the database and you’ll
put in your new 3D model and you’ll ask: what does it resemble,
where does it fit, where does it stand when you compare it with
assemblages?” she explained. “It’s like searching in Google except
this will be adopted for archeological objects.”
By Yigal Grayeff
2017-2018 39