Animation of the Week: Mastodon Jugal (Cheek Bone) from the Carter bog site, Darke County, Ohio

by Bernard K. Means, Director, Virtual Curation Laboratory (VCL)

Today’s animation is a jugal, or cheek bone, from a sub-adult mastodon (Mammut americanum) found in a bog in Darke County, Ohio. It was brought to the VCL for scanning by Ray Vodden, Research Technician in charge of casting and molding at the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH). Ray is reconstructing the mastodon for an exhibit at VMNH, and needed to have a left jugal bone to mirror the right one that was discovered.  He can sculpt a replica, but that would take considerable time and effort.  Instead, we 3D scanned the bone in the VCL using a NextEngine Desktop 3D scanner, mirrored the digital model in Meshmixer, and then 3D printed the “left” bone using our MakerBot Replicator–all in a fraction of the time sculpting would have taken.

Ray Vodden holding the mastodon jugal up to a projected image of a mastodon skeleton.

Printed mirror of the right jugal.

A Biweekly Animation Post: Bartmann Sherds from George Washington’s Ferry Farm

by Bernard K. Means, Director, Virtual Curation Laboratory

With back to back conferences last week (Virginia Association of Museums/Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference), I missed posting an animation last week.  This post will feature three animations created from scans of three sherds from a Bartmann vessel that mend. These sherds were recovered from George Washington’s Ferry Farm in the summer of 2013. Printed plastic replicas of these sherds were used to illustrate ceramic mending at the 2015 Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference.

Mending at the Middle Atlantic Archaeological Conference.

Animation of the Week: 17th Century Oyster Shell from Jamestown

by Bernard K. Means, Director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory (VCL)

 

Today’s animation is a 17th century oyster shell recovered archaeologically by Jamestown Rediscovery.  Oysters were substantially larger prior to historic over exploitation.