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The ‘invisible’ side of yellow coffins.

The Set of the Chantress of Amun Tanethereret in the Musée du Louvre and Some Considerations on the Production of Yellow Coffins in the First Half of the 21st Dynasty

Stefania Mainieri

Keywords: yellow coffins; Third Intermediate Period; 3D models; photogrammetry; geometry; style; production; reuse

Abstract

Through the coffin set of Tanethereret—dated to the first half of the 21st Dynasty—this article aims to underline the importance of analysing the masks and human features of ancient Egyptian yellow coffins and their value in disclosing new and important information about the Third Intermediate Period society. By moving between different visualisations, overlapping layers, measuring, and comparing, the sculpted human forms can be, for example, further indices of the quality of the production/”workshop”/artist and of the socio-economic power of the client. The possibility of making a three-piece set—coherent not only in decoration but also in form—suggests the existence of workshops capable of producing high-quality coffins and, consequently, that some people could still economically afford such coffin sets. Gaining access to such “workshops” and this type of production may indeed represent a further attempt to “manufacture social power” for the middle or high elites. Moreover, this specific case study also shows the dynamism of ancient Egyptian artistic production in a period of crisis, with artists able not only to re-adapt and re-commodify an ancient object but also to create possible new compositions with a balanced mix of styles between tradition and innovation. The study of this “invisible” part of the yellow coffins thus represents a new way of reconstructing the history of the people “hidden behind” the yellow coffins and the socio-economic sphere of ancient Egyptian society in the Third Intermediate Period, manifested through the resulting art and material culture.

 

Faces Revealed Project and ancient Egyptian yellow coffins: A new methodology step-by-step

Stefania Mainieri

Abstract

Faces Revealed Project established a new methodology for studying the geometry of the human forms and facial features realized on anthropoid yellow coffins of Ancient Egypt. Since 1980, yellow coffins have been the subject of various studies mainly focused on iconography and palaeography. However, these anthropoid coffins are three-dimensional objects with well-rendered masks and detailed facial features as well as forearms, hands and bellies. This lack of analysis in the study of coffins may be due to the fact that they are “concealed” by rich and multi-coloured decoration, so they are not easily visible in all their forms to the naked eye. Today new technologies allow us to go more in-depth and digitally switch off the decoration and observe these “invisible” features. As this is an entirely new process, the primary task of the Faces Revealed Project was to establish a new methodology from the photogrammetric survey to the data collection.

The present article discusses in detail the stages of the Project applied to around 100 Egyptian yellow coffins stored in Museums in Europe, the United States and Egypt and the information that they can disclose. The task is to share with the scientific community the established protocol and offering the possibility to “work independently” applying the same methodology to the same objects as well as to other classes of material.

Faces Revealed Project. Analysis of the Yellow Coffins in the Museo Gregoriano Egizio

Stefania Mainieri

Abstract 

The Egyptian coffins are complex objects from both their symbolic and religious point of view. During the long history of Ancient Egypt, coffins were subjected to substantial modifications in form, decoration and style, as well as in their traditions and use. For their value, these objects can be studied only with a multidimensional approach: from the materials used for their construction to their ideological and religious value. In this holistic vision of studying materials, in collaboration with the Vatican Coffin Project, Faces Revealed Project was born in 2018 and funded by the European fellowship Marie Skłodowska-Curie (H2020-MSCA-GF 2019: 895130) in 2019.

The project focuses on the geometry and the volumetry of the anthropoid yellow coffin lids which are worth being investigated as isolated elements. The analysis uses photogrammetry and 3D models, which allow the observation of the objects, digitally “switching off” the painted layer, and adding important elements to the knowledge of the coffins, especially in terms of construction, production and ancient reuse, themes that are at the centre of the international debate.

This article wants to summarize the first results the of Faces Revealed Project on 11 yellow coffins in the Musei Vaticani, one of the partners of the project together with the Museo Egizio di Torino, la University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Politecnico di Milano.

In Bollettino Monumenti, Musei e Gallerie Pontificie Musei Vaticani, 41, Forthcoming

A New Study on Two Yellow Coffins at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Di Napoli (MANN)

Stefania Mainieri

Keywords: MANN – yellow coffins – 3rd Intermediate Period – workshops – ancient reuse

Abstract

The article focuses on the results obtained from the investigation of two yellow coffins in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli (MANN; inv. nos. 2344, 2348; 2341, 2347), which were sold to the Real Museo Borbonico by the traveller Giuseppe  Picchianti in 1827.
Although first studied in 1989, a new and in-depth study on painting and typology of these objects was made in 2016 on the occasion of the rearrangement of the permanent display. Starting with a detailed analysis and a precise description of the coffins, issues surrounding their provenance and chronology have now been updated.
Furthermore, it was also necessary to investigate some unclear iconographical and structural details on the coffins, an examination that suggested, on the one hand, an ancient reuse of one of the two coffins and, on the other hand, the possible production of both coffins by a possible common draftsman.

Annali, Sezione orientale 83(1-2), 2023, 3–37. https://doi.org/10.1163/24685631-12340139

Digital Humanities: a holistic approach to classify Yellow Coffins

S. Mainieri, A. Mandelli, and C. Rossi

Keywords: Digital Humanities, Yellow Coffins, Photogrammetry, 3D Survey, Physiognomic, Face Landmark Recognition

Abstract. The Faces Revealed Project takes its lead from innovative research trends that see the combination of different but interconnected skills and competences. It aims at contributing to the study of ancient Egyptian coffins by developing a new and efficient methodology based on fast, simple, cost-effective, and portable technique allowing the acquisition of precise and accurate gemetric data. This technology will provide further insights into the manufacture, production, workshops, and possibly the ancient reuse of the Yellow Coffins and may also constribute to the creation of a new way of classifying these coffins.

 

Photogrammetry and face carvings. Exploring the ‘face’ of the Egyptian anthropoid coffins by 3D-mod

Stefania Mainieri

In Ancient Egypt, New Technology. The Present and Future of Computer Visualization, Virtual Reality and Other Digital Humanities in Egyptology, edited by Rita Lucarelli, Joshua Roberson and Steve Vinson, Harvard Egyptological Studies, 17, 2023.