[Oatka]

the new technological advances of 3D printing mean the research and reproductions can be easily shared among fellow academics and the public.

I can see all kinds of areas for that - Sumerian cuneiform tablets for one. Ought to help by passing 'em around to aid/confirm translation.

[Red Badger]

Those Sumerian cuneiform tablets were found all over the Middle East for centuries, along roads, in ruins, in excavations of all sorts of places. They were common as dirt.

But nobody knew what they were, or what they had written on them until they were able to translate them in the 1800’s.

Then it was all too clear: THEY WERE TAX RECORDS....................