ANCIENT Egyptian artefacts have been reproduced using a high school’s facilities.

Beamont Collegiate Academy’s FabLab has been used to 3D print items found in tombs in the Valley of the Kings, with the reproduction set to feature in an exhibition at Rochdale Museum.

The Long Lane high school worked alongside the BBC’s Civilisations series and Egyptologist Lee Robert McStein from digital heritage consultancy Monument Men in order to produce the replicas.

Chris Hillidge, director of the FabLab at Beamont Collegiate Academy, said: “It’s great that the ancient and the modern can come together in such a creative way.

“Lee’s amazing 3D scanning of the canopic jars, which were used by the ancient Egyptians during the mummification process to store and preserve the internal organs of their owners for the afterlife, means that our students can pick up and handle these fascinating relics.”

Beamont’s FabLab – which also boasts laser cutters and CNC routes as well as specialist woodwork and metalwork facilities – is open for the public to use free of charge for their own projects on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening and Saturdays.

Chris added: “The FabLab is open to all Warrington residents – it’s a hive of traditional and cutting-edge creativity, and we have such a wide range of local people who come down and use the facilities for free to do anything from laser cutting wedding stationery to setting up their own microbusinesses.

“Our 3D printed work is also on display in lots of museums all over the UK and our FabLab team travel all over the north west, showing the public how to 3D print and how it can be useful to them.

“If you’d like to learn more about it, come down and speak to us.”