The Swiss Magdalenian portable art and supra-regional parallels

There are about fifty Magdalenian sites known in Switzerland. Most of these sites were discovered and excavated at the end of the 19th and in the first half of the 20th century. Consequently, it is not always possible today to establish clear research contexts and dating is often based on typo-chronological statements. The Swiss Magdalenian portable art can be divided into two main groups: engravings and figurative sculptures. Engravings mostly appear on reindeer antlers, bones, and rarely on stone or jet. They are more common than figurative sculptures. The majority of engravings are on everyday objects such as perforated batons and projectile points. They are mainly signs and other ornamental motifs. In addition, there are also figurative subjects such as animals and a animal-human representation. The term “figurative sculptures” refers to partially sculptured objects, such as decorated spear thrower ends and stylized female figurines. With the exception of a musk ox head no other evident animal sculptures have been found in Switzerland. Some of the Magdalenian portable art objects found in Switzerland show supra-regional parallels with finds from other parts of Europe. The aim of this article is to present the most important Swiss finds in a broader European geographical context.

Processing the CAD Model of Sculptured Artifacts for Free-Form Thick-Layered Object Manufacturing

Processing CAD models of large sized, structurally complex, and dominantly sculptured objects for free-form thick-layered object manufacturing (FF-TLOM) is a non-trivial task. Algorithmic support is needed, especially when the applicators of the FF-TLOM technology are not specialized experts. The research team of the authors has developed and programmed a system of such algorithms to prepare NURBS-based assembly models for layered manufacturing, but also to control both the cutting tool and the manufacturing equipment. This paper starts with a brief overview of the FF-TLOM technology and the concept of reducing a CAD model to fabrication elements. Then, it explains the high-level concepts supporting the algorithms, and presents the details of their operation. The logically linked system of algorithms is applied to find the best position for segmentation. The best segmentation orientation can be found in a computation-intensive, multi-criterion optimization process. It is difficult to simplify and speed up, for the valuation of the parameters of the objective function cannot be done without a preliminary computation of the segments and layers.