BAGHDAD, May 30 (UPI) -- A team of Italian scientists is exploring a rapid prototyping laser-scanning technique to reproduce 5,000-year-old Iraqi cuneiform tablets.
Scientists with Pisa University's Assyriology Department and the Italian Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment conceived of the project dubbed "Duplication and Rebirth" to re-create replicas of the tablets dating from the Mesopotamian era.
"The tablets are now inaccessible. The (Iraq) National Museum in Baghdad 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," ENEA researcher Paola Negri told Discovery News.
Researchers will use information from a collection of references, photographs and a laser-scanning technique called rapid prototyping to reproduce exact replicas of the tablets.
The tablets described day-to-day life around 3350 B.C. and also served as an official record of laws, treaties and economic activity in ancient Mesopotamia, Discovery News said.
Scholars estimate there are at least 5 million tablets buried throughout Iraq, with an additional 500,000 in various world collections.
"This could be a great opportunity to safeguard Iraqi's rich heritage," Negri said.
