Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Tutankhamun – the secrets of the tomb go online.

Tutankhamun is the only intact pharaoh's tomb ever discovered (by Howard Carter, in 1922), but many questions about the tomb remain unanswered, because most of material was in grey stacks for a long time. In 1993, than a third of the artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb had been properly studied and published, maybe because Carter had no collaborators left to continue his work when he died.
The article continues describing discovery´s moment, the first investigation time, and the objects that were inside the tomb, such as weapons, chariots, musical instruments, clothes and cosmetics. Egyptologists are really excited about what this objects can tell us about the technology of the ancient Egyptians.
Archaeologists believe that the best way to ensure that Carter's discoveries saw the light of day was to post the entire archive online; the idea was to built a database that could hold images of the original material as well as transcripts, so the text could be easily searched. The project tries to bring the forgotten details of the tomb to as many people as possible. By making these notes available the public would have access to the full extent of the discovery, and that would help to put "moral pressure" on Egyptologists, to encourage them to study this important collection. "I often say that the real curse of Tutankhamun is that Egyptologists have tended to shy away from working on the material," says an expert. A principal aim of the project is to bring the forgotten details of the tomb to as many people as possible.
Today, around 98% of the material is available, and a model like this could transform the field of archaeology.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jul/18/tutankhamun-website-howard-carter-tomb

No comments:

Post a Comment