Imaging at the Bardo Museum

Seven months after the deadly Bardo National Museum Attacks in Tunis, the museum’s doors are open to visitors. In fact, the museum held a ceremonial reopening less than a week after the attack, but there are still signs of March 18th, 2015 amongst the exhibit

This week, the IDA’s Benjamin Altshuler is visiting the Bardo in order to image their priceless Carthaginian artifacts using the 3D technology of the Million Image Database program. His images are some of the thousands the IDA has received documenting cultural heritage sites and artifacts around the globe.  

The 3D images cannot be viewed correctly without 3D glasses (though even the ones you are given in the cinema will work), but the examples below demonstrate the MID technology. These images will be used to work up 3D renderings for the database, technology that is also already producing amazing results. 

The Bardo National Museum highlights the necessity of cultural heritage preservation in a time when museums, universities, libraries and other cultural centers are under threat of destruction. We were privileged to be able to image the collection at the Bardo and to be a part of their ongoing efforts to preserve the remains of one of the most powerful centers of the ancient world. The IDA will continue to image in museums and sites throughout the Middle East and is receiving images from collaborators in the field.