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Virtual Reading of Papyri with the Elephantine Project*
September 12, 2016
About the Lecture:
The unique, multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multi-lingual history of the small island Elephantine in the river Nile near Aswan is being studied through the texts found on a large body of papyri and ostraca. These written materials cover its history over almost 4,000 years, providing insights into aspects of daily life, religion, art, language, law, and into various forms of social interaction within its communities, as well as interaction/contact with neighboring communities. However, many of the papyri remain rolled or folded and cannot be safely opened to be read. As part of the Elephantine Project,* virtual unrolling and unfolding by tomography to reveal the text is being developed. For texts written in metal-containing inks, absorption tomography is being pursued. For texts written in carbon-based inks, suitable alternatives are being investigated in a feasibility study.
* Supported by the grant ELEPHANTINE of the European Research Council (ERC) and by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (BKM) and the Regierender Bürgermeister von Berlin
About the Speakers
Verena Lepper is Director of the ERC-Starting Grant-Project ELEPHANTINE and Tenured Curator for Egyptian and Oriental Papyri at the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin. She teaches as Honorary Professor for Egyptian and Oriental Papyri at the Humboldt University Berlin. Currently she is Visiting Scholar at the Institute for the Studies of the Ancient World (ISAW) , at New York University. Educated in Germany, England, and the U.S., she previously taught at Oxford and at Harvard University. She has published more than ten books in the fields of Egyptian and Oriental papyri, ancient literature, history of egyptology, and the relationship of Ancient Egypt to the Near East.
Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke is Honorarprofessor at the Physics Department, FUB (Freie Universität Berlin), and associate member of the Excellence Cluster Topoi, FUB. He was a senior scientist at HZB (Helmholtz-Center Berlin for materials and energy), and recently visiting professor at C2RMF (Centre de recherche et de restauration des Musées de France), Palais du Louvre, Paris. After a long career in physics, with various visiting positions, including at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, CA, SUNY Stony Brook, NY, and Chalk River Laboratories, Canada, his present activities focus on the promotion of interdisciplinary research on cultural heritage, best highlighted by his successful initiative for a Gordon Research Conference on Cultural Heritage Research co-chairing the first conference 2012.