INTANGIBLE HERITAGE?...NOT ANYMORE, FROM PHOTO TO 3D PRINTED CULTURAL HERITAGE ASSETS REPLICAS. THE TWO MISSING IRON DISCS FROM THE DACIAN HILLFORT OF PIATRA ROȘIE (ROMANIA)

Abstract

Cultural heritage domain has started to adopt various modern technologies to improve their visitor’s user experience within various museum exhibitions. There are a wide variety of academic papers that present various workflow that enable the digitization of various cultural heritage assets, starting from small objects up to entire buildings and fortifications. This paper is focused on the development of 3D models that are suited for 3D printing using budget 3D printers as well as open-source 3D modelling software to enable the physical reconstruction of tangible cultural heritage assets. The case study presented within the paper has been done on the Dacian ornamental discs that has been looted from the Dacian hill fort from Piatra Roșie (Luncani, Hunedoara County, Romania) and the only references are a set of images that have appeared online at an action house from United States of America. Researchers are currently making new materials 3D printable expanding their category from plastics and metals up to composite materials that combine multiple materials to get the best properties of each. Along with these new materials, a wide variety of 3D printing technologies have been developed, these technologies have the potential to become a vital component in cultural heritage empowering the research, documentation, and preservation for a wide variety of cultural heritage assets.