Curating a Digital Heritage Method for the Preservation of Arabian Rock Art (Petroglyphs)

Talk

WHEN Thursday, October 9, 2025
5-6 PM EST WHERE 19 Washington Square North WHO 19 Washington Square North Faculty Fellows Program Open to the Public

The preservation and study of Arabian rock art — petroglyphs and inscriptions — has been seriously hampered by the fact that the vast majority of them have only begun to be published, have been poorly published with inadequate digital image quality, or have been published without full commentary in obscure books and academic journals in only a few libraries worldwide. This presentation details the processes involved in a digital heritage preservation method to make the study of prehistoric petroglyphs accessible to archaeologists, curators, historians, and epigraphers. The results of our processes are realistic 3D digital and physical replicas of the scanned images of museum artifacts from advanced light scanning and 3D printing methods. As such, our process describes a method of digital preservation, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and on-demand reproduction of the digitally stored artifacts that can exhibit assemblages of prehistoric rock art to local communities today as their heritage.

Speakers
  • William Zimmerle, Senior Lecturer, Arts and Humanities, NYU Abu Dhabi
  • Rakesh Beheira, Industry Associate Professor, NYU Tandon School of Engineering
  • Oraib Al Ketan, Research Instrumentation Scientist, NYU Abu Dhabi

In Collaboration with

NYU Abu Dhabi Institute

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