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3 Egyptian Texts

Gabriel Bodard edited this page Dec 11, 2024 · 21 revisions

Working with Egyptian texts

SunoikisisDC Digital Classics: Session 3

Date: Thursday January 30, 2025. 16:00-17:30 GMT.

Convenors: Eliese-Sophia Lincke (Freie Universität Berlin), Franziska Naether (Leipzig)

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/zelmcZmoa7E

Slides: tba

Outline

This session introduces basic digital tools and instruments used to decipher and analyze Ancient Egyptian Texts. We begin with a thorough introduction to Ancient Egyptian languages and scripts, including Hieroglyphic, Demotic and Coptic. The main digital tool discussed is the Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (TLA), which recently received a major makeover, and to which new functionalities are added every year. Other topics covered include text alignment (with Ugarit), and the state of the art of Unicode for Egyptian scripts.

Required readings

Further readings

  • M. Amin, A. Barmpoutis. M. Berti, E. Bozia, J. Hensel & F. Naether. 2022. "The Digital Rosetta Stone Project." In R. Lucarelli, J. Roberson & S. Vinson (eds.), Ancient Egypt, New Technology. The Present and Future of Computer Visualization, Virtual Reality and Other Digital Humanities in Egyptology. Harvard Egyptological Studies 17. Leiden / Boston: Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004501294_004.
  • M. Berti & F. Naether (eds.). 2016. Altertumswissenschaften in a Digital Age – Egyptology, Papyrology and Beyond. Proceedings of a Conference and Workshop in Leipzig, November 4-6, 2015. Available: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-201500.
  • Frederik Elwert, Simone Gerhards & Sven Sellmer. 2017. "Gods, graves and graphs – social and semantic network analysis based on Ancient Egyptian and Indian corpora." Digital Classics Online 3,2. Available: https://doi.org/10.11588/dco.2017.0.36017
  • Ulrike Henny, Jonathan Blumtritt, Marcel Schaeben & Patrick Sahle. 2017. "The life cycle of the Book of the Dead as a Digital Humanities resource." Digital Classics Online 3,2. Available: https://doi.org/10.11588/dco.2017.0.35896
  • R. Lucarelli. 2023. "From Virtual Reality to virtual restitution: How 3D-Egyptology can contribute to decolonizing the field and the question of digital copies vs the original." In: Palladino C. & Bodard G (eds.), Can’t Touch This. London: Ubiquity Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bcv.i.
  • S. Polis & V. Razanajao. 2016. "Ancient Egyptian Texts in Context: Towards a conceptual data model (the THOT data model – TDM)." Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 59: 24-41. Available: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2041-5370.2016.12036.x
  • W. Wendrich. 2023. "Chapter 1 Ethics of Digital Representation in Egyptology". In Ancient Egypt, New Technology. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004501294_002.
  • On the TLA, see also:

Resources

Exercise

  1. TLA Exercise:

tba

  1. Rosetta Stone exercise:

Go to Ugarit and create a bilingual alignment of a parallel corpus of your choice, such as a Ptolemaic priestly decree text (or feel free to use this suggestion: Bible parallel corpus in different languages). Choose two languages that you are familiar with and focus on the differences across translation: what words align perfectly? What words align imperfectly, or not at all? What words are missing across the two texts? What is the overall percentage of matches?

After you have completed the bilingual alignment, choose a parallel text in a third language that you do not know and perform a trilingual alignment. See how much of the third language you can align, by using the two other languages as an aid for better understanding.

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