Beyond Replicas : Repatriation, 3D Printing, and the Power of Copies

Abstract: This thesis looks at the feasibility of using 3D modelling and printing and how this can help in repatriation efforts. Museums and archaeologists around the world spent the better part of the last two hundred years collecting and maintaining indigenous materials, often gathered under unethical means and circumstances. Museums often do not want to let their materials go, although this attitude is changing, there can still be stubborn agents that refuse to let the artefacts go, arguing that if artefacts are returned, what will be left for research and display? Creating copies for museums to keep could alleviate this worry. But copies are often seen as somewhat inferior to the real thing, that there can be no substitute for the original. This thesis looks at this and makes the argument that there are in fact many substitutes for originals. The original, while important, is not always necessary. A large part of the debate over copies is the lack of aura of the original, however it is argued here that aura is not always tied to one thing.