Digitizing Scandinavian rune stones on the Island of Bornholm for heritage preservation

This exciting project was initiated and overseen by Laila Kitzler Ahfedt from the Swedish National Heritage Board. Laila and Artec 3D resellers, Scan 3D innovations, embarked on an amazing journey to capture the ancient rune stones on a small Danish island of Bornholm. Located in the Baltic Sea, off the south coast of Sweden, this island has a large variety of these incredible historic relics in all shapes and sizes.

The rune stones were captured in high detail using Artec’s two most widely used 3D scanners. First, the stones were scanned with the lightweight Eva, to get the overall dimensions and shape of the stones. Then, Space Spider was used to capture the intricate carving details in high resolution. Equipped with the portable battery pack, the scanning experts from Scan 3D innovations were able to capture the rune stones directly onsite, both indoors and outdoors, and thanks to powerful Artec Studio scanning software, the results were visible in real time and the 3D models were ready in no time.

Learn how objects can be captured for heritage preservation using the Artec Space Spider and Eva 3D scanners and the latest version of the Artec Studio 3D scanning software. 

According to Laila, rune carvers were the first native writers of Scandinavia, and having a digital replica of the stones is a great way to study their carving techniques and traditions. This will also make the process of identifying the individual carvers and linking different stones to them much faster and easier.

The project was a great success, despite the changeable weather conditions and the very large size of some of the stones (over 2m tall!). The smart combination of Artec Eva and Space Spider along with the Artec Studio software proved to be a very effective way of digitizing these historic rune stones and preserving Scandinavia’s heritage for centuries to come.