We can now 3D print copies of the precious historical artifacts ISIS destroyed

Arch of Palmyra in Syria ca. 1880.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

An endangered, historically significant, Middle Eastern artifact may soon be coming to a location near you — well, a plastic copy of it, anyway.

Harvard University, Oxford University, and Dubai's Museum of the Future are teaming up at the Institute for Digital Archaeology to 3D-print several replicas of the Arch of Palmyra this spring and display them in public spaces and museums in New York and London. This is just one step in the Institute's larger plan to develop a one-million-image database documenting important historical artifacts for potential 3D replication.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.