Recasting Antiquity: A Live Demonstration of Cast Production

Come watch the creation of a new object for our Fall 2017 exhibit, which will feature antiquities and artwork from ancient Mesopotamia!

The Harvard Semitic Museum founder and first director, Professor David Gordon Lyon (1852–1935), assembled not only a rich collection of antiquities from the Middle East, but also a wide range of plaster cast reproductions of sculpture and wall reliefs, including several from the Assyrian royal palaces of the 9th-7th c. BCE. These reproductions were popular “virtual reality” teaching tools of their day, but have recently gained in importance also as documentation of world cultural heritage that is currently under systematic destruction by the self-declared Islamic State (ISIS).

A pilot project from 2013 developed the technique by which accurate new resin copies could be created from the old plaster casts, now damaged by age and no longer suited for display. The process includes the restoration and cleaning of the old casts, followed by the building of a silicon mold into which the liquid resin is poured. The new resin copies are extremely durable and light compared to the old casts, and yet all details of the original plaster casts are captured, including embroidery on furniture, inscriptions, and clothing details. Unlike the old plaster, resin casts can be painted to replicate the original stone object, and once the molds have been completed it is possible to make multiple copies.

Since 2013, some fifty students of Harvard College have been involved in this process of fabrication and exhibit. Now, graduate students in the Harvard Extension School’s course MUSE E117 (“Museum Collections Care”) will demonstrate the process to our museum visitors.

Check out this article in the Harvard Gazette for more information.