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©Paola Negri/Sergio Petronilli/ENEA
The cuneiform tablets housed in Iraq document how people lived for millennia in ancient Mesopotamia. They describe codes of law, treatises and economic transactions, from the beginning of writing, around 3350 B.C., until the end of the pre-Christian era.

A technology normally used in reconstructive surgery to create prosthetic limbs is now being applied to create reproductions of Iraq's precious and fragile cuneiform clay tablets, according to an Italian team of researchers.

Thousands and thousands of artifacts were stolen and broken at Bagdad's museums following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, in what has been called the most catastrophic theft of antiquities since World War II.

Among the lost items are the fragile tablets, which are some of the earliest known written documents. The tablets were invented as early as 5,000 years ago by the Sumerians who impressed the writings in clay. The clay then hardened quickly in the hot and dry climate of Mesopotamia, an area near modern Iraq.

Now scientists want to help preserve what is left of the vulnerable Iraqi cultural heritage. Sponsored by the Italian ministry of Foreign Affairs, the innovative project to digitally recreate the tablets was conceived by Pisa University's Assyriology Department and the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment (ENEA).

"The tablets are now inaccessible. The [Iraq] National Museum in Badgad is closed to the public after that heavy looting. We thought we had to do something to help preserve what is left in the Iraqi museums," Paola Negri, ENEA assyriologist, told Discovery News.

Called "Duplication and Rebirth," the project consist of an electronic catalogue with bibliographical references, photographs, and when possible, 3D images of the tablets. These three-dimensional models can then produce exact replicas of the original relics.

"So far, we have recorded almost 20,000 artifacts scattered throughout the world," Negri said.

While scholars estimate that roughly five million of the tablets are still buried in the mounds of Iraq, some 500,000 are kept in museum and private collections worldwide.

To obtain 3D images and subsequent perfect replicas of the tablets, the researchers used sophisticated laser scanners and a technology called rapid prototyping.

After a laser ray scans the surface of the tablet to obtain the necessary data to build a 3D image, a software builds the three-dimensional model.

"This data is the key to rapid prototyping, but can be also used to recreate virtual copies of the clay blocks, which can be viewed on a computer or over the Internet. Our goal is to build a 3D virtual museum accessible to scholars everywhere," ENEA engineer Sergio Petronilli, told Discovery News.

The last part of the process involves rapid prototyping. Using the previously built 3D model, the technology builds up layers of thermoplastic material and creates a perfect replica of the original. Unlike using silicon or latex casts, the process does not damage the fragile clay surface.

According to Negri, three-dimensional models, either virtual or physical, are particularly useful to assyriologists.

"The tablets were written on the front, back and sides, thus you need to rotate them to properly read the text. It is something not so easy to do with two-dimensional photography," Negri said.

The tablets document how people lived for millennia in ancient Mesopotamia. They describe codes of law, treatises and economic transactions, from the beginning of writing, around 3350 B.C., until the end of the pre-Christian era.

"We have already trained two Iraqi scholars from Badgad's museum. We will ship the equipment as soon as it is possible. This could be a great opportunity to safeguard Iraqi's rich heritage," Negri said.

According to Robert Englund, who teaches at the department of Near Eastern Languages and Culture of the University of California, Los Angeles, the data dissemination by the Italian project is very important.

"Without open access to their files, the work would make no sense to me. I certainly join the Italian group in underscoring the desperate need to perform a full digital capture of Middle Eastern heritage," Englund told Discovery News.

Englund, who is also the director of the Cuneiform Digital Library, a project to make the form and content of cuneiform tablets available online, is however cautious about the practical feasibility of the project at the moment.

"As far as I know, the tablets are now held in rooms behind iron doors that have been barred off using a blow torch. I wonder how the expensive equipment will be transported and set up in the museum, and how it will work with only sporadic electricity and with high security concerns," Englund said.