Herculaneum Amazon

On the theme of Amazons from Herculaneum, a painted marble bust - thought to represent a wounded Amazon - was found by the Herculaneum Conservation Project. Scientists at the University of Warwick WMG have used rapid prototyping to create a physical 3D model of the head that records small details. The next step is to 'apply techniques to the computer model to exactly reproduce the lighting and environmental conditions under which the painted statue would have originally been created and displayed. This visualisation will provide archaeologists with an otherwise impossible view of how the original statue may have looked in context, and allow them to experiment with alternative hypotheses.'

Original 3D model

The photos are from Warwick WMG: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/wmg/mediacentre/wmgnews/scientists_bring_2000/pics/. There is also a video explaining the process at this site.