Since 1817, the Parthenon marbles, which date from 447-432 BC, have been in the British Museum. While serving as an envoy to the Ottoman Empire, Lord Elgin bought the marbles, which some say were looted. Greek advocacy groups have urged Britain to return the artworks, claiming that the Turks were violating the wishes of the people they had conquered.
Greece has repeatedly asked the British Museum to return the ancient Parthenon marbles, arguing that they are part of a shared heritage and transcend cultural boundaries. The British Museum says it is open to exploring any possible loan, but only with formal acknowledgement of the lender’s ownership of the objects and a commitment to return them. Greece has refused to meet the “standard precondition” for any such loan. Mary Beard, a trustee of the British Museum, is undecided about the return of the marbles.
According to Boston University archaeology professor Andrea Berlin, the institute’s efforts to recover the lost artefacts could alter the way people interpret the monument and what it represents.
The Institute for Digital Archaeology’s executive director, Roger Michel, has developed a robot that can make 3D replicas of historic monuments. In 2016, the Michel group presented a two-thirds scale model of the Palmyra Monumental Arch in London’s Trafalgar Square. The original, which was built by the Romans and is believed to have two millennia of history, was destroyed by Islamic State fighters in 2015.
A life-size replica of one of the Parthenon stones on display at the British Museum is being carved by a robot. The copy is a model for a replica to be carved in marble from Mount Pentelicus. The robot will carve a replica of a metope of the Centauromachy, or carved panel, according to Michel.
The copies are destined for the British Museum, Michel told the New York Times. He stated: “Our sole aim is to promote the repatriation of the Elgin Marbles. One apparent approach is to bake a second identical cake when two people want the same cake.
Michel and Alexy Karenowska, the Institute’s technical director, entered the British Museum’s Duveen Gallery as visitors in March, after the institution refused a formal request to scan the artefacts. They then used guerrilla tactics to gain access to the gallery. The two created 3D digital photos using regular iPhones and iPads under the watchful eye of security staff, even though many of the newer models come with lidar sensors and photogrammetry software.
A time-of-flight camera called lidar sends out pulses of light in the form of a burst of infrared dots to measure distances as small as a few thousandths of a millimetre. To create a virtual computer model of an object, photogrammetry combines geometric data from an image into overlapping photographs of the object.
The carving robot received the 3D scans of the marble horse’s head and used them to carve the prototype over the course of four days. By the end of July, according to Michel, the final models, both in Pentelic marble, will be ready. will be ready.
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