Three-Dimensional Scanning and Printing in Undergraduate Archaeology Education

Author(s): Jeb Card; Micayla Spiros

Year: 2015

Summary

Three-dimensional imaging is a quickly growing part of archaeological documentation, investigation, education, and public outreach. Cost and expertise barriers to using 3D software and equipment continue to drop. Nonetheless, many efforts in 3D archaeology are driven by graduate students or focused undergraduates who become part of dedicated 3D laboratories or projects. Since 2013, we have been working with a different approach of incorporating three-dimensional imaging and printing at the general undergraduate level. Students in an Introduction to Archaeology course are utilizing 3D scanning and printing as a routine part of term papers, while students in a course on archaeology and art cooperated to document artifacts for planned online exhibits. Unsurprisingly, these efforts have generated interest in archaeology, though not uniformly. Faculty time to guide novice students through the use of the equipment and software is a drawback at this scale, though in many cases this leads to greater student engagement with their project and the course. The growing use of 3D technology in archaeology suggests that it must eventually become a part of undergraduate education, with the nature of that education becoming an important question.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

Cite this Record

Three-Dimensional Scanning and Printing in Undergraduate Archaeology Education. Jeb Card, Micayla Spiros. Presented at The 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Francisco, California. 2015 ( tDAR id: 395954)

Keywords

Geographic Keywords
Mesoamerica

Spatial Coverage

min long: -107.271; min lat: 12.383 ; max long: -86.353; max lat: 23.08 ;