Ancient Vase Light Scanned From Saqqara, Egypt

This model is from an open-source .stl file available for download from UnchartedX. The vase is from a private collection and is highly valuable, so I couldn't afford to scan it myself! I did find an example of one of the Saqqara vases online for sale at $50,000.00.

Thousands of these vases were were buried 33 meters below the Step Pyramid and were excavated by Jean Philippe Lauer during the 1920's. Approximately 40,000 vessels were found in 6000 boxes. They are carved or otherwise precision made from granite. This example is carved from rose granite, one of the hardest materials to work with for any craftsman or sculptor. It is generally agreed that they were stored there at some point in the early first dynasty, meaning, they were very possibly pre-dynastic work. They are at least 5,000 years old.

This vase was lent out for precision scanning and measurement by metrologists in the aerospace industry late last year, and the light scan was generously placed in the public domain. That scan is the source for this model.

It is a high-poly model which I scaled down to 6" in height (the approximate size of the actual vase) in Blender and exported as a wavefront for importation into Daz Studio. I then gave it a quick texture which closely approximates the original artifact. It's pretty darn close, actually.

Instead of $50,000 this Daz asset is free to the community. Not only is it questionable whether I could legally charge for it, it would be unethical to do so. Besides, we here at C3D hope that it inspires interest in the exploration of ancient artifacts with a special emphasis on artifacts like the Saqqara vases and jars, which seem to suggest the existence of ancient advanced technology. They certainly are beautifully made and enigmatic.

Enjoy!