The year was 1812. Napoleon invaded Russia and was getting dangerously close to Moscow. The last stand for the city was the infamous battle of Borodino which took place on September 7th with more than 250,000 troops battling each other. At the conclusion of the battle, with no clear winner, Napoleon ultimately entered Moscow, which had been burned to the ground by the Russians to destroy food for the French troops.
Marking the 200th anniversary of that battle, the Russian Academy of Sciences, commissioned Artec to help with excavation and documentation of the battle field. Artec was tasked with scanning all human and battle-horse remains. The job was not for the faint-of-heart. One of Artec’s tech workers nearly fainted. But they persevered…
Traditionally, archeologists use photography, as well as pen-and-paper, to document their findings. Using an Artec MHT scanner, Artec was able to not only document the objects/subjects they found during excavation, but they could also measure any part of the scene months after they left the site. The scanner also captured each object/subject layer by layer as it was being revealed. That means that each layer can be further analyzed. The excavation site contained the remains of 38 war-horses and 11 soldiers. One soldier’s scan clearly shows a bullet wound to the head.
Scanning took one hour and post processing took another hour (traditional tools would have taken many days). Artec Studio was used for further analysis in the lab.
For more information visit www.artec3d.com.
Filed Under: Rapid prototyping
