Excavation boxes and papyri from Elephantine Island. Photograph: Sandra Steiss © Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, The Berlin State Museums, SPK

Virtual Reading of Ancient Egyptian Papyri from Elephantine Island

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Archaeological and philological evidence from Elephantine Island, on the Nile River near Egypt’s southern border, traces 4,000 years of cultural history from the Old Kingdom of the Pharaohs through the Arab conquest. Thousands of papyri and other manuscripts written in various languages and scripts offer valuable insights into everyday life in this unique multicultural community. Many of the documents are delicate and brittle, either rolled, folded or crumpled. Egyptologist Verena Lepper shares her research on these precious documents, now spread over more than 60 institutions in 24 different countries, and her larger project to make them digitally available through virtual unfolding techniques.

Verena Lepper is the curator for Egyptian and Oriental Papyri and Manuscripts at the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, National Museums Berlin, and honorary professor at the Humboldt University Berlin. She has published widely on different aspects of Egyptology, including ancient Egyptian language, literature and papyri. Her current research focuses on the project "Localizing 4000 Years of Cultural History: Texts and Scripts from Elephantine Island in Egypt," supported by a grant from the European Research Council. Lepper is currently the 2019/2020 Stewart Fellow in the Humanities Council and in the Department of Religion at Princeton University.

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