Dura Europos Homeric Shield

3D ModelNoAI

On January 18th 1935, Clark Hopkins, the field director at Dura-Europos, found three painted shields stacked on top of each other during an excavation. The shields, which date back to shortly before AD 256 and which were abandoned when Dura-Europos was sacked by the Sassanians, were in good condition with much of the painting still visible.

The ancient shield has been beautifully restored in digital 3D using available data from the Yale University Art Gallery and Herbert J. Gute’s watercolor painting, “Wooden Shield Painted with Scenes from the Trojan War”. Though some parts of the shield were damaged and missing, particularly the lower left, these gaps were filled in using the existing figures to create a seamless recreation.