An assesment of research on 3D digital representation of ancient Greek furniture, using surviving archaelological artefacts

Due to acknowledged bibliographic amount of ample visual data in other forms of prehistoric -unique and sometimes fragmentary- artworks, representing Greek Neolithic and Cycladic furniture, support of a research dealing with the “3D digital representation” of such otherwise extinct furniture types, motifs and woodworking construction details, was engaged. The methodology formulated, made good use of any kind of existing visual and bibliographic data, collected under a well- documented, interdisciplinary structure and exhibited its results in an understandable manner, in order to promote further scientific research. It was thus decided that its basic characteristics should be: ease of use by any potential user, continuous software support and continuity and a wider recognisability amongst the academic community. Therefore, as in various contemporary occurrences in similar researches and projects, two broadly used 3D graphics software suites, Google Sketchup® and Autodesk® 3ds Max, as well as 3D printing have been utilized. This paper aims at assessing the preliminary outcome of these 3D visualization applications in the underdeveloped area of Greek prehistoric furniture research.