From November 12th to 22nd, 2023, experts from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (MoTA) took part in a field school in Elephantine, offered by the KulturGutRetter project and the Cairo Department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI).
The ancient settlement, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, is located on the Nile island of Elephantine, opposite the modern city of Aswan. Scientists from the Cairo Department of the DAI have been researching the archaeological site in cooperation with the Swiss Institute for Archaeology and Archaeological Research (SIK) for more than fifty years. Since the beginning of the research, the working methods and technical possibilities have evolved and offer modern digital solutions. At the end of November, Sibel Erhan, a Research Associate for building documentation with the KulturGutRetter project at the DAI, held a field school to train Egyptian employees of the Antiquities Administration of Aswan, the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu, in the digital documentation of cultural heritage. She uses techniques that are also being used and further developed as part of the KulturGutRetter project to document cultural heritage.
Digital tools for cultural heritage documentation
The archaeology and egyptology experts were trained in the use of structure-from-motion (SfM) technology and other topics. With the help of 2D images of a building, component or fragment, detailed and full-scale 3D models are created. Using archaeological finds from Elephantine, the participants dealt in detail with camera settings and photogrammetry.
Teilnehmende der Fieldschool nehmen Fotos auf, um SfM-Modelle von Inschriftenfragmenten zu erstellen | Fotos: DAI, Sibel Erhan.
Following an introduction to the QField app, the participants had the opportunity to use the software to document fragments of archaeological building and damage to temples, and to familiarise themselves with the application. The QField app was adapted to the needs of archaeology and cultural heritage protection by the IT experts of the KulturGutRetter project.
Training in surveying with the total station using survey points attached to monuments | Photos: DAI, Ayman Mohamed Al-Baghdady, Sibel Erhan.
Another important part of the training was surveying using the total station (thedolite). The participants practiced stationing the device and measuring reference points on monuments, which are crucial for the later scaling and georeferencing of the SfM models. The training courses in surveying, SfM and digital documentation gave the participants a comprehensive insight into the documentation of immovable cultural heritage.
KulturGutRetter - testing techniques for the documentation of immovable cultural heritage
Following the field school, Sibel Erhan tested the Minimum Standard Procedures (MSPs) and workflows for the documentation of architectural monuments developed as part of the KulturGutRetter project. Together with the Leibniz Center for Archaeology (LEIZA) and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the DAI is currently developing a mechanism to enable emergency response for cultural heritage under acute threat, as part of international disaster relief. The KulturGutRetter project is supported by the Federal Foreign Office and the German Bundestag. The aim is to deploy personnel capable of intervening when, for example, museums, collections, archives, libraries or architectural monuments are endangered or damaged by disasters. At the DAI’s Department of Architecture, experts in monument preservation and building research develop and test the MSPs and for immovable cultural heritage, in order to continuously improve them.
Elephantine - Ancient settlement of Pharaonic Egypt
Elephantine was first inhabited around 3300 BC and remained so throughout all periods of Pharaonic Egypt, until the settlement was abandoned in the 10th/11th century AD. In cooperation with the SIK, experts from the DAI are researching the settlement of the ancient city and investigating residential quarters from the early Pharaonic period to late antiquity. Another research focus is the investigation of the architectural history, ornamentation and written evidence of the temples of the goddess Satet and Chnum as well as the cemeteries.
The remains of the settlement of Elephantine lie at the southern tip of the island of Gezirat Aswan at the northern end of the first Nile cataract. | Photo: DAI, A. Hassan.