New Light on Scribal Practice in the Dakhla Oasis (Excavations at Amheida, Egypt))

During the excavation season at Amheida this year, a reassessment of local scribal practices in the Dakhla Oasis in the Roman era revealed a number of connections and trends through multiple forms of evidence, namely archaeological (small finds), art historical (tomb walls), architectural (buildings), papyrological (paleography), and ceramic (ostraka). The preliminary results of this study show that scribal practices in the Dakhla Oasis adhere to those elsewhere in the Roman Empire despite its extreme geographical remoteness.

The Book of the Dead in 3D

The Book of the Dead in 3D aims at creating a database of 3D annotated models of decorated ancient Egyptian coffins. It shows how image-based 3D modeling software can help the visualization of ancient inscriptions in their own physical context and the way Egyptologists approach and record ancient Egyptian funerary texts.

The Book of the Dead in 3D. Visualizing the ancient Egyptian magic for the dead

3D coffin

During this year (AY 2017-2018), we have continued to build 3D visualizations of ancient Egyptian coffins and to progress in disseminating 3D models of previously unpublished ancient Egyptian coffins kept in the storage rooms of the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (PAHMA) at UC Berkeley. We are also continuing the textual and iconographic analysis of the 3D models by creating interactive annotations on the models themselves.