On November 28, 2023, BIDS sponsored a special event at Sutardja Dai Hall. Professor Rita Lucarelli, a Center for Cultural Analytics faculty leader, brought together subject matter experts to present on the digitization of ancient Egyptian coffins and their shareability in museum and academic environments. Following are the presenters and their topics:
- Rita Lucarelli (UCB): Tridimensional rendering of ancient Egyptian coffins as a case-study for increasing access to museum collections: “Death in 3D” at SMAEK (Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, Munich) and PAHMA (Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley)
- Nicola Lercari, Bruno Sartini and Dario Calderone (LMU): A new digitization workflow for Egyptian coffins: from creating Digital Twins to enriching metadata via Large Language Models
- Kea Johnston (UCB): The Future of the Book of the Dead in 3D
- Alexander Schütze (LMU): The transmission of Book of the Dead Spell 72 on Late Period sarcophagi
I really enjoyed presenting the results of our work on ancient Egyptian coffin studies and digitization to an audience of colleagues and students who, like myself, are thrilled about applying data-driven methods of analysis to the study of cultural heritage. The productive discussion that originated in the room proves the importance of collaborative, international projects to advance our knowledge of the past through technology and by thinking in terms of cultural data sets and flows. -- Rita Lucarelli
