The Stelae of the Museo Egizio

Coordinator: Johannes Auenmüller

Team: Alessandro Girardi

The project studies and catalogues the entire collection of stelae of the Museo Egizio – approximately 500 items dating to different phases of Egyptian history – through iconographic, textual and material analyses, photographic campaigns, 3D scanning, multispectral imaging and digital epigraphy, with the aim of producing a comprehensive scientific catalogue and a popular book.

The project proposes the scientific revision and publication of the entire collection of stelae of the Museo Egizio, the most important in Italy and among the most significant in the world, which to date lacks an updated comprehensive study (the only dedicated publication dates back to 1972, Tosi and Roccati, and concerns mainly the stelae from Deir el-Medina). Each artifact is analysed in its iconographic, textual and material components. For selected items, 3D scans and multispectral analyses are planned for the reconstruction of original pigments. The results will contribute to the new exhibition section about stelae in Materials. The Shape of Time, the museum’s Online Collection and a comprehensive scientific catalogue.

The research follows a two-phase procedure: in the first, the artifacts are catalogued and analysed from a material and iconographic perspective; in the second, the textual apparatus is studied. The documentation integrates systematic photographic campaigns, 3D scans, multispectral analyses (for the identification of pigments and eroded traces) and VIL (Visible Induced Luminescence) imaging for the detection of Egyptian Blue pigment. For selected stelae, complete digital epigraphic documentation is produced. Data are collected through the Zotero bibliographic software and archived in the Museum’s information system. The methodology is designed to be systematic and replicable across the entire corpus.

The project has already produced scientific and curatorial contributions: in 2024 an essay on the funerary stela of Nya was published in the catalogue of the exhibition Gli Egizi e i doni del Nilo (edited by Paolo Marini and Alessandro Girardi, Modena 2024), and in October 2024 a preliminary exhibition section dedicated to stelae – with 11 selected and studied artifacts – was inaugurated in the spaces of Materials. The Shape of Time. Scientific articles are in preparation on stela Cat. 1764, on which a previously unknown rock inscription was discovered on the back, on a group of New Kingdom stelae from Hermopolis Magna and on a corpus of stelae from Deir el-Medina dedicated to the god Iah-Thoth. By 2026, the completion of the stela section in Materials. The Shape of Time with 42 objects is planned, and in the coming years the full update of Museo Egizio’s Online Collection and the publication of a popular book on the stelae collection.

Link

Lecture “Stele e trend iconografici a Deir el-Medina: la triade Min-Qadesh-Reshep”, held on November 3, 2022: https://www.youtube.com/SteleDeirelMedina

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The Stelae of the Museo Egizio

The Stelae of the Museo Egizio

Visit

Events

Collection and research

Touring exhibitions

Who we are

Fondazione Trasparente

HR and tenders

Press