Various circumstances may prevent access to or (long-term) use of anthropological collections for educational or research purposes (limited budget, time-limited research permits, temporary loans, non-local collections, repatriations, reburials, number of manipulators, etc.). This may concern not only the archaeological and forensic human remains, but also their substitutes such as (plaster) casts (state of preservation of the materials, fragility, etc.). 3D digital technologies have the potential to overcome these challenges of preserving, accessing and handling human-related collections.

The present project aims to lay the foundation for a reference collection in virtual dental anthropology. More precisely, the main objective of this work is to perform a non-metric assessment of teeth before and after 3D digitization of orthodontic plaster casts. Methodologically, this work will utilize physical and digital methods relevant to dental anthropology. The student will be responsible for 3D scanning of casts and 3D reconstruction of models. Expected outputs are the 3D models of plaster casts, a clean dataset containing all non-metric data and a description of the variables measured, and the submission of a thesis including an error assessment of dental non-metric scores between physical and digital methods used.

The tasks to be addressed in this thesis are:
1) To better curate the plaster cast collection (classification, database activity, etc.).
2) To acquire the necessary bibliographic and technical knowledge (especially ASUDAS system), and establish a study protocol (for a corpus of 30 individuals).
3) To use the appropriate 3D digital technologies to scan and virtually reconstruct the casts, score non-metric traits on the casts and the 3D models. To find a second observer from among the students or staff members of the department and train him/her on the study protocol that will have been validated by the supervisor.
4) To evaluate intra- and inter-observer errors, evaluate differences between methods, and process statistically the data.
5) To discuss the results and highlight the interest of a virtual reference collection. To upload all the 3D models online on Sketchfab.

To be awarded credit for the first semester (course Bi4502 Bachelor Thesis I) the above stated tasks 1 and 2 need to be accomplished, and to be awarded credit for the second semester (course Bi6100 Bachelor Thesis II) the above stated tasks 3 and 4 need to be accomplished, therefore to finish the thesis and hand it in for thesis defense in the IS Archive. The recommended extent of the thesis is 30-50 pages but can be exceeded if the thesis development requires it. However, the 30-page lower limit is the minimum which can be accepted. The thesis will include the explicit description of utilized material and methods, including in cases when the thesis is in form of a literature review. The method/process description will clearly state the author’s contribution to acquired results. Czech version of the ISO 690 style will be the citation style. Appropriate tabular and graphical summarizing and instructive illustrations will form part of the thesis. The thesis will be handed in in the PDF format in the IS Archive and in print bound form for defense and archiving purposes. In the formal and content aspects the valid MU legislation, Dean’s Measure on final these and Department of Anthropology internal regulations must be met.