Portfolio page of the company Artefacts showing a cutout of a reconstruction of a Mesopotamian building decorated in detailed patterns of coloured stone-cones.
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15 years of Artefacts!

on
2023-11-10

Wow! 15 years and two days ago I co-founded a visualisation company called Artefacts specialised in creating scientific archaeological 3D reconstructions and visualisations for research and science communication. 15 years! I still was a student back then and this company is still running and busy today! I think it is time to have a look back in time…

15 years ago

View into a 3D reconstructed room with wall paintings from the ancient city of Til Barsip
Detail of a combined reconstruction of black and white drawings with coloured ones | © artefacts-berlin.de

15 years ago in 2008, Sandra Grabowski and I were students of West Asian Archaeology at the Freie Universität Berlin. We both had the same idea: Let’s do something in 3D! Sandra and I had experience in graphic design and IT respectively. We took a while to come up with a name and logo. Finally, we created a first website with some first attempts in 3D visualisation. Now we only needed clients…

10 years ago

A 3D visualisation of the Sin-kashid palace in Uruk
General view of the Sin-kashid palace of Uruk, situated by an inner-city canal. | © artefacts-berlin.de.

In 2013 we had already five years of experience and worked intensively on the Uruk Visualisation Project resulting in a very big exhibition in the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin. Many of our images and animations were presented to a wider audience. A couple of archaeologists already knew us, but this exhibition kind of was the breakthrough to a wider international audience. We gave a couple of interviews and many magazines, books or other exhibitions requested our material since then.

5 years ago

A 3D visualisation of a piece of fortification from the ancient city of Mari (modern Syria).
Reconstruction of the fortification wall and gate of Mari phase Ville II (récent) | © artefacts-berlin.de

In 2018, our projects doubled and we already had the second big exhibition behind us, that actually was going on tour through North America as well. We were also intensively involved in the French Mari Project, work that also engaged us for several years and where we made some friends along the way. It was also the year where we started a project that is actually still ongoing and not published yet: The Girsu Project by the British Museum.

Today

Today we are still working. Well, these days it is more Sandra than me, but she is deeply involved in several projects which still can’t be shown yet due to embargo agreements. But they will show up in the near future and I can honestly say, they keep looking better and better. I am very happy that after 15 years this company is still healthy, busy, and running getting requests from all over the world. I sincerely hope that in 15 years, I can write something along the lines of “30 years of Artefacts!”, but this remains to be seen…

By the way: If you are thinking of using images, animations or 3D models like here, don’t hesitate to ask, we are happy to talk to you.

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Sebastian Hageneuer
Germany

Hi! My name is Sebastian. I am an archaeologist, a university lecturer, freelancer, guitarist, and father. You could say I am quiet busy, so I learned to manage my time and energy to build good habits and still have space for myself and my family. Sounds difficult? Read here how I do it. Every Friday.

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