Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S. - Nicola Lercari

Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S. - Nicola Lercari

Ancient Egyptian Coffins in 3D: Digital Analysis, Visualization, and Dissemination

Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S. - Nicola Lercari

Rita Lucarelli [+-]
University of California at Berkeley
Rita Lucarelli is Assistant Professor of Egyptology at the University of California, Berkley, USA. She specializes in the religions of ancient Egypt, demonology, and magic in the Near East, and the funerary culture and literature of ancient Egypt. She has held positions at the University of Verona, Bonn University, University of Bari, and she was a visiting research scholar at the Italian Academy of Advanced Studies of Columbia University (2009) and at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World of New York University (2012). She is the author of The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion in the 10th Century BC (Brill, 2006), and co-editor of Herausgehen am Tage: Gesammelte Schriften zum altägyptischen Totenbuch (with Marcus Müller-Roth and Annik Wüthrich; Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012).
Kea Johnston [+-]
University of California, Berkeley
Kea Johnston Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

Description

This chapter discusses the importance of digital data capture techniques such as digital photogrammetry for expanding access to texts carved on Egyptian sarcophagi by creating collections of digitized large mortuary objects. Such large objects are often stored in museum warehouses and not easily shared with scholars and the public. By providing a thorough explanation of the digital techniques and results of the “Book of the Dead in 3D” project at UC Berkeley, this chapter highlights the significance of conducting text analysis on the 3D models of the coffins by creating interactive annotations--including text transcription and translation of the magical spells--on the digital models themselves. This kind of embedded metadata is critical to scholars of Egyptology. The case study presented--the sarcophagus of Psamtik in the collections of the Phoebe Hearst Museum at Berkeley--describes in detail the technique of digital photogrammetry combined with custom programming to create the annotated 3D models.

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Citation

Lucarelli, Rita; Johnston, Kea. Ancient Egyptian Coffins in 3D: Digital Analysis, Visualization, and Dissemination. Preserving Cultural Heritage in the Digital Age - Sending Out an S.O.S.. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 110-124 Feb 2022. ISBN 9781800501263. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=42597. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.42597. Feb 2022

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