Browse results
Abstract
In our contribution we discuss in detail the three-dimensional digital documentation strategy of the intact burial chambers of Shaft K24 of the recently discovered mummification workshop complex by the Saqqara Saite Tombs Project (SSTP). This 30 m deep shaft served as a communal burial site. In six tombs dug into the walls of the shaft at different depths, a large number of significant archaeological materials were found in situ. After an introduction to the project, we discuss the different 3D technologies, which we used to document the site and the excavation process, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. Besides the technical description, a main focus of the paper will be the influence of 3D documentation on the research and conservation processes.
Abstract
Word-play has not been studied extensively in Egyptian texts, possibly because the iconographic and consonantal nature of Egyptian orthography complicates the identification and analysis of word-play types. For an Egyptologist, an identifiable example of word-play is paronomasia, or the semantic juxtaposition of similar sounding words. In this regard, research in Egyptian word-play might benefit from pattern matching, a technique commonly used in computational linguistics, to identify consonantal patterns within a transliterated text. Our research aims to understand the mechanics underlying constructions of Egyptian paronomasia in texts with variable occurrences of word-play.
Abstract
Many museum collections and other resources on ancient Egypt have been digitized over the last few decades, but they are not yet used to their full potential. Collections are not searchable in their entirety and do not follow the same standards. They are written in different languages, are often not user friendly, and do not offer the opportunity for image-based searching. In order to address these issues and more, Cleo was created. Cleo is an online platform connecting at present four major international museum collections, including over 45,000 objects, which leverages the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for “smart” searching. The available objects from all collections can be searched currently in English or Dutch, on any device (e.g., mobile, table, or laptop). Objects can be explored by text, image, and location. AI searches can be used to present the user with objects similar to photos uploaded by the user or with images selected from the platform. Cleo was created by Aincient, founded by Heleen Wilbrink, with the help of many others. Following Wilbrink’s presentation of the beta version of Cleo at the Bloomington conference on “Ancient Egypt and New Technology,” Joshua Roberson (assistant professor at the University of Memphis) proposed a collaboration with his university’s Institute of Egyptian Art & Archaeology and the Institute for Intelligent Systems, to research long-term hosting solutions and to incorporate other institutions and collections into the Cleo platform over time.
Abstract
This chapter presents the results of archaeological project documentation through digital photogrammetry at different sites and for a variety of objects in Egypt. We demonstrate its promise for both documentation and restoration. We describe a study in which photogrammetry and digital modeling techniques were used to obtain a three-dimensional surface digital model of an important underwater site, and we shall see also how photogrammetry with the aid of computer graphics is an important tool for virtual restoration of fragmentary statues lifted from the sea. Finally, we demonstrate the use of 3D scanning data sets to reveal an inscription, invisible to the naked eye in natural light, on a part of a deteriorated granite column.
Abstract
In 2016–2017, the el-Hibeh Project began a digital initiative with members from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University). Over the course of a year and half, the project created a Virtual Reality rendering of the temple of Amen, and deployed robotic explorations of the labyrinth of tunnels that riddle the site during a short season in summer 2017. The qualified success of the project has led to considerable reflection on the issue of sustainability of digital enterprises. I ponder the aims and goals of digital archaeology in scholarly research and public outreach through discussion of early and current digital projects, such as Çatalhüyük’s Okapi Island and the CRANE project focused on the Orontes Watershed, as well as examine contemporary commercial enterprises, such as Lithodomos. In doing so, whilst thinking about the next steps for the el-Hibeh digital project, I wrestle with the question, “if archaeology is by nature material, how do we reconcile the virtual?”
Abstract
The goal of this contribution is to present The Digital Rosetta Stone, which is a project developed at Leipzig University by the Chair of Digital Humanities and the Egyptological Institute/Egyptian Museum Georg Steindorff in collaboration with the British Museum and the Digital Epigraphy and Archaeology Project at the University of Florida. The aims of the project are to produce a collaborative digital edition of the Rosetta Stone, address standardization and customization issues for the scholarly community, create data that can be used by students to understand the language and content of the document, and produce a high-resolution 3D model of the stone. First, the three versions of the text were transcribed and encoded in XML according to the EpiDoc guidelines. Next, the versions were aligned with the Ugarit iAligner tool that supports the alignment of ancient texts with modern languages, such as English and German. All three texts were then parsed syntactically and morphologically through Treebank annotation. Finally, the project explored new 3D-digitization techniques of the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum in order to enhance traditional archaeological methods and facilitate the study of the artifact. The results of this work were used in different courses in Digital Humanities, Digital Philology, and Egyptology.
Abstract
3D visualizations of heritage objects such as ancient Egyptian coffins can be better used for general and specialistic studies if they also provide annotations. This paper presents the system of annotations developed for the “Book of the Dead in 3D Project,” which applies photogrammetry and digital annotations to coffins and sarcophagi produced in the 1st millennium BCE. The annotated models of the project include the transcription, translation and transliteration of the magical texts inscribed on the coffins, which can be interactively read by the user while navigating the 3D model.
Abstract
This paper applies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to satellite data to examine the movements of royal expedition routes through Egypt’s Eastern Desert during the Middle Kingdom. In this paper I employ Least Cost Path analysis, a GIS tool that analyzes the landscape and pinpoints the most cost-effective route for a traveler. This paper first overviews the use of GIS in the Digital Humanities, before examining evidence for historical expedition routes during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom and analyzing possible routes through the Eastern Desert.
Abstract
Interest in digital approaches to Egyptology started in the second half of the 20th century, for instance with the establishment of the Manuel de codage at the 1984 international round table “Informatique appliquée à l’Égyptologie.” Since that time, many large textual, visual, and spatial digital projects have been developed by teams from several countries for a variety of audiences. The developments of practical and theoretical approaches of digital Egyptology have subsequently grown within the broader context of the Digital Humanities. Although digital scholarly projects are in the first place content driven, ethical questions on, among other aspects, representation, access and sustainability should always be included and can only be an effective part of the project design when considered and integrated right from the start.
Abstract
Since 2011, the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)—University of Memphis joint epigraphic mission at Karnak has been studying the decoration carved on the 134 columns that originally stood inside the Hypostyle Hall of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak. Using photogrammetry, we have produced unrolled orthophotos that can show individual columns in their entirety. During the course of our season at Karnak in November–December 2017, we were able to operate a flying camera or unmanned aerial vehicle (a DJI Phantom 4 Pro UAV, commonly known as a ‘drone’) around the abaci, the top of the adjacent walls, and the open-air areas of the temple where loose blocks originally attached to the Hall are stored. By taking pictures from different angles and building 3D models of these hitherto lesser investigated parts of the Hall, we were able to improve our recording methods and to gain new insights into the architecture and inscriptions carved on the monument.
Abstract
The research effort behind the creation of the iClassifier digital platform is the accurate description of the emic mental landscape of ancient Egypt, as reflected in the classifier system of the Egyptian script. Our central hypothesis is that each semantic classifier in the script system heads a conceptual category. Following this hypothesis, collecting as many lemmas, tokens, and their classifiers as possible will present us with an estimated, expanding map of the emic categories in the ancient Egyptian mind. Classifiers allow us to trace central members and marginal members, interrelations, and diachronic developments in each emerging category, taking into consideration classifier combinations, inverse correlations, and the lack of classifier use. Since classifiers are evident in the Egyptian script from its early stages, through Demotic, and up until the demise of Ptolemaic, the overall corpus should comprise millions of examples. The digital platform iClassifier is designed for large-scale data collection, analysis, and study of classifiers in complex scripts.
Abstract
Our study seeks to address the long-debated problem of the topographical reconstruction of Memphis, the ancient capital of Egypt, through a new approach that combines archaeology, philology and geomorphology in a single framework. The result of this work is a text-augmented map of the city capable to take into account all those philological clues (ancient descriptions of the city and toponyms) that would not fit in an exclusively archaeological map. We present our work-in-progress Virtual Reality experience that combines 3D maps and models, satellite imagery, and excerpts from the original source texts.
Abstract
The paper introduces MYTHOPHOR, a digital tool for collecting and analyzing materials relating to the use of mythical metaphor in ancient Egypt. Basing itself on recent findings in both, the study of myth and in Cognitive Science, MYTHOPHOR endeavors to highlight the significance of mythical imagery for human imagination, representation, and thought by—among other things—contextualizing and interpreting evidence for divine metaphor in ancient Egypt in line with theories in metaphor and semantic field studies. The MYTHOPHOR database is structured with a view to answering questions such as what kind of metaphors, similes, or analogies make use of divine imagery, which deities and myths are most often invoked in them, and which specific aspects of these deities predestine them to function as the basis of figurative speech. Besides explaining the structure and use and of the database, the paper also presents some preliminary results.
Abstract
For the past several decades, Egyptologists have debated the original authorship of the battle scenes on the western exterior wall of the Cour de la Cachette at Karnak Temple. A consensus has emerged that Merneptah was the original author of these scenes and texts. This study seeks to assist that ongoing conversation by analyzing the cartouches on the north end of the wall using modern technology, in particular photogrammetry and point clouds, in order to measure the depth of the cartouches and surrounding glyphs. Modern technology also allows us to gain a new perspective on the cartouches by creating a cross-section of the wall, further enhancing the ability to measure precisely. The results of these analyses demonstrate that there is insufficient depth for more than one usurpation of those cartouches giving further validity to the now widely accepted view that Merneptah’s authorship was followed by the erasure of his names by Amenmesse before Seti II ultimately placed his name in the cartouches.
Abstract
This paper aims to illustrate the initial results of a new methodological approach to the study of anthropoid coffins. We analyze the coffins using a new methodological approach that will support and complement traditional analytical methods used for these finds. The project is based on the analysis of “facial features” carved on the lid and the so-called “minor attributes.” 3D modeling provides us with an excellent record of surface morphology.
Abstract
The Croato-Aegyptica Database (CADb), which covers institutional and private collections in Croatia, is presented. This database includes not only ancient Egyptian artifacts, but also various other objects related to travelers to Egypt, Egyptian Revival and Egyptomania in our collections.
The CADb is based on the guidelines set by ICOM-CIDOC (International Committee for Documentation) and ICOM-CIPEG (International Committee for Egyptology). Each artifact is analyzed, described, and implemented in the database with their full bibliography and several images. The project is currently working on a thesaurus, maps, 3D images of several collections, and the implementation of the new collections from the Archaeological museums in Dubrovnik, Split and Zagreb and a number of minor collections that we discovered recently. After full implementation, the CADb will cover almost 5000 artifacts.
Abstract
With the interdisciplinary project “Puzzling Tombs,” a team of Egyptologists and engineers of KU Leuven aims to document and reconstruct the architecture and iconography of the Middle Kingdom elite cemetery at Dayr al-Barsha in a virtual environment. Such a tool allows the manipulation of the thousands of tomb fragments, and virtually solve the puzzle they represent. Structured light technology is used to accurately record the fragments, while the remaining standing architecture is documented by terrestrial laser scanning. The resulting 3D meshes are processed on a game engine which allows for coping with the dense polygonal structures that compose the digital models. In combination with this virtual reconstruction, digital epigraphy following the Chicago House method is carried out in the well-known tomb of the Twelfth Dynasty governor Djehutihotep. This detailed documentation will be integrated as an additional layer in the virtual environment.
Abstract
Texts, and texts as inscriptions in particular, are complex objects, posing challenges to digital representation. What may be defined as the linguistic text (the text as an ordered composition of words) is not only a matter of lexicon and grammar. Relevant dimensions also include intertextual relations with other texts (notably in terms of formulae and formulaic schemes), as well as the poetic form, or structure, of the text, which can be complemented by features of inscriptional layout. More broadly, what may be called the inscriptional text (the text as a physically dimensional and architecturally localized artefact inscribed in stone) often carries further significations. Based on two practical examples of Old Kingdom inscriptions (Harkhuf, Hezi), the paper will discuss which dimensions should be present in a digital corpus of inscriptions as complex, multi-dimensional objects.
Abstract
Project concept “SEE”—Secondary Epigraphy in Egypt—aims at developing a strategy for a research e-infrastructure concerned with secondary epigraphy in Egypt. It also promotes the articulation of research infrastructures as an organic part of the research landscape of Egyptology. This is a brief introduction of the SEE model, which is a research- and capacity-building digital resource that would enable access to complex information about secondary epigraphy in Egypt, enabling us to reconstruct the history of the sites through analysis of secondary epigraphy.
Abstract
To understand the organization of the spatial occupation at Saqqara from the Predynastic period to the end of the Old Kingdom, a project called SIGSaqqara was launched in July 2016, supported by LabEx ArcHiMedE of Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 University in France. To carry out this study, a geographic information system (GIS) linked to a database, including forms for recording semantic data, is used. Data concerning the monuments and also the owners of the tombs are recorded to better understand the necropolis and to try to grasp the factors which determined the locations chosen for construction of its various features. After careful investigation and because we believe the data should be made available, an online publication is planned for the larger public, students and researchers, which we believe will lead to further developments in analysis of this material.
Abstract
VÉgA (Vocabulaire de l’Égyptien Ancien, Vocabulary of Ancient Egyptian) is an online digital dictionary developed in collaboration between Egyptologists, designers and computer engineers specialized in the creation of digital interfaces. The first goal was to create a platform where we can model and present the evolving knowledge of Ancient Egyptian by bringing together and cross-checking words, references, their hieroglyphic forms, as well as creating links to a collection of records related to the texts in question. Since 2017, VÉgA has been accessible using a simple web browser. There are no other installation requirements. Its interface is tailor-made and user-friendly to address the public, whether they be an amateur, professional, student or linguist with needs from the simple translation to a complete lexicographical study. However, after two years of platform development, the outcome ended being radically different from the initial idea. The freedom offered by digital technology to create what we need, the way we want it, pushed the team to rethink how we used a dictionary and to model a new methodology along the way, especially taking advantage of the opportunity to open the tool to scientific and even non-scientific users.
Abstract
The Spirit of Egypt is a Virtual Reality project being developed by Exelauno. This project, which recreates an ancient Egyptian funeral procession and transition into the Hereafter, is being designed with instructional pedagogy in mind and, thus, can be an example through which to discuss real-world, best practices. If employed correctly, Virtual Reality is able not only to help students learn about ancient Egypt but also make it more memorable.
While there are great benefits to bringing technology into the classroom, real criticisms exist: the learning curve for “digital immigrants” can be steep; developing technology can diverge from Universal Design standards; and screens can negatively affect learning and retention for all students. Our assertion is that technology needs to be brought into the classroom in thoughtful, purposeful, and pedagogically sound ways. Uniquely, compared to other technologies that put something (i.e., a screen) between students and the information, VR in essence does the opposite—completely immersing students in the world they are studying.
Abstract
Within a broader mission to comprehensively integrate archival data for the site of Giza, the Giza Project at Harvard University has applied over a century’s-worth of archival resources to produce 3D models of the Giza Plateau and many of its major monuments. As technology has expanded the options for documentation and communication of archaeological information to both academic and popular audiences, it has been challenging to adequately preserve fundamental standards of academic transparency and citation for 3D media. Whether intended as visualizations of selected data or as detailed visions of ancient milieus, 3D digital models—along with other media that incorporate them—often include significant elements of reconstruction. Once released, often they become disassociated from the sources and thought processes that informed their creation. By conceiving of 3D archaeological reconstructions as “new data” that integrate with “old data,” the Giza Project has developed referencing protocols and documentation that promote necessary, reasonable, and accessible standards of transparency and citation for 3D archaeological reconstructions and visualizations.