
VALENCIA, SPAIN—Live Science reports that researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the company InHeritag3D have created a 3-D rendering of the medieval warlord Ali Atar’s Nasrid sword, which was taken after his death during the Battle of Lucena in Córdoba, Spain, in 1483. Reportedly aged 90 at the time of his death, Atar, Lord of Zagra, was father-in-law of the Sultan of Granada, King Boabdil, the last sultan of the Nasrid dynasty. Atar’s sword, housed in the Toledo Army Museum, is inscribed with animal heads and Arabic letters, and decorated with precious stones and metals. José Luis Lerma of the Polytechnic University of Valencia explained that digital preservation must now complement the physical conservation of artifacts. To read about a Viking sword discovered in Norway, go to “Artifact.”