Recent technological advancements like 3D printing allowed researchers to create a replica of a 3,000-year-old Chinese oracle bone. The said print is believed to be the first in the world.
Earlier this week, experts announced that they created the world's first 3D-printed replica of a Chinese oracle bone. About 3,000 years old, oracle bones are the oldest existing documents using the Chinese language.
These oracle bones were used in divination rituals to seek answers from the spirit world. The inscriptions on the bones, written on the flat underside of turtle shells and ox shoulder blades, provide insights to various aspects of early Chinese culture and society, such as astronomy, warfare, hunting, farming and medical practices.
"Some of the bones have already been included in the Cambridge Digital Library but now new technology provides readers around the world an even closer look at these precious artifacts," said Charles Aylmer, Head of Cambridge University Library Chinese Department.
One oracle bone, CUL.52, has inscriptions that give reference to the ritual sacrifice of an ox to a royal ancestor. This bone was scanned in 3D by archaeologist Professor Dominic Powlesland, a pioneer in the field of digitizing archaeological data.
The high-resolution image of the 9 x 14-centimeter bone (3.5 x 5.5 inches) pooled about 1.3 million aspect points, allowing a seamless three-dimensional view of the bone surface from the obverse where the questions to the spirits were incised to the reverse on which the divination pits were engraved.
Powlesland then partnered with the Media Studio of Addenbrooke's Hospital to create a replica of the bone, using the hospital's 3D printer primarily used for orthopedic and maxillofacial surgeries. The print has 350 overlaid layers of plaster hardened with cyanoacrylate, or superglue.
What makes this replica revolutionary is the advantage that it can provide researchers as they study historical data, because these bone inscriptions give a wider perspective about the life of early Chinese society. Researchers can extensively study the inscriptions without damaging the original oracle bone.
This is not the first time 3D printing assisted experts. In December 2015, neurosurgeons made history as they fitted a cancer patient with a 3D-printed titanium replacement.
