Traditionally, duplicating handmade artefacts was done primarily by moulds. To obtain multiples of the casts, the artisan laid out a layer of clay over the mould and pressed on it strongly to make sure of thorough contact. The moulds found by excavation show wear due to compression and deterioration over time. They often disintegrate and are unusable. Consequently, understanding and studying the images they contain is only possible when the moulds are re-useable for casts which, to date, are carried out in restoration laboratories by traditional techniques. It should be noted that apart from the casts’ shrinking, moulds are also subject to altered sizes and morphologies after extraction from the archetype and therefore at the end of the production line the cast image is all the more blurred due to a loss of detail. This study describes a multidisciplinary approach applied to two clay moulds from classical antiquity that differ in size and shape, and the casts they produce using traditional techniques. Using Reverse Engineering (RE) by 3D laser scanning, a computer-based method was applied to study their morphometric relationship only obtainable in a virtual environment without compromising the integrity of the physical models. Furthermore, the digitalised moulds have provided virtual casts without significant size alterations for the aims of this work, making them ‘ideal’ casts. These last casts were then converted by Rapid Prototyping (RP) into physical prototypes which have negligible geometric errors for making multiple replicas for educational or exhibition purposes. In archaeology, this method offers researchers the opportunity to study and acquire morphological data which the moulds themselves cannot, nor can their casts. So, it is possible to go back in time to images which match their archetypes even without their casts. More detailed knowledge about the form of an art object is important for its study, conservation and how it was produced. So, ancient clay moulds are studied particularly in investigating methods of mass production, their social value and the degree of specialisation of those ancient societies.

传统上，复制手工制品主要是通过模具完成的。为了获得多个铸模，技术人员在模具上铺了一层粘土，并用力压在模具上，以确保充分接触。挖掘发现的模具会因压缩而磨损，并随时间推移而劣化。它们通常会分解，无法使用。因此，只有当模具可用于铸造时，才有可能理解和研究其中包含的图像，而迄今为止，这些铸造是在修复实验室中通过传统技术进行的。应该注意的是，除了铸件的收缩之外，从原型中提取模具后，铸模的尺寸和形态也会发生变化，因此在生产线的末端，铸模的图像由于细节的损失而变得更加模糊。这项研究描述了一种多学科的方法，该方法适用于两个大小和形状不同的经典古代陶土模具，以及使用传统技术生产的铸模。使用通过3D激光扫描进行的逆向工程（RE），基于计算机的方法研究了它们仅在虚拟环境中可获得的形态计量关系，而不会损害物理模型的完整性。此外，数字化模具提供了虚拟铸模，并且没有明显的尺寸变化以实现这项工作的目的，使其成为“理想”的铸模。然后，通过快速原型（RP）将这些最后的铸件转换为物理原型，这些几何原型的几何误差可忽略不计，用于制作多个复制品以用于教育或展览目的。在考古学上 这种方法为研究人员提供了研究和获取铸型本身也无法铸型的形态数据的机会。因此，即使没有演员表，也可以及时返回与原型匹配的图像。有关艺术品的形式的更详细的知识对于艺术品的研究，保护和生产方式很重要。因此，在研究大规模生产方法，其社会价值以及这些古代社会的专业化程度时，特别要研究古代陶土模子。