Digitalising antiquity: the example of terracotta figurines in Ancient Egyptian collections

The production of terracotta figurines as an art form is germane to a number of ancient civilizations and it carries undoubtedly a certain social value. Although their production represented a major activity during antiquity, they have been often qualified as a ‘minor’ production, being a massproduced item made from a low-cost material. In the study of ancient terracotta figurines, the rewards are greatest when examining the broadest possible spectrum of production, rather than focusing on one individual figurine. One of the main sources to study these artefacts is represented by museum collections. The projects SUR.VI.V.E. (SURveying VIrtual Voids in Egyptian collections). A Digital and Cultural Study on Terracotta Figurines and their Lost Molds and its extension with SUR.VI.V.E.-Phase 2 stem from the idea of combining the analytical approaches used so far in the study of the terracotta figurines with the innovative digital methodologies. The methodology developed during the first phase of the project and focused on the corpus of ancient Egyptian terracotta figurines kept in the collection of the Museo Egizio in Turin, will be applied in the next three years to other groups of objects that, differently from the collection of Museo Egizio, will be selected according to different and more specific criteria, like the degree of their preservation and provenance. The application of digital techniques and virtual 3D rendering in a more systematic way on different clusters of materials will facilitate the knowledge and the access to surveyed terracotta figurines, even those preserved in ‘minor’ collections, in order to implement the comparative study of this category of objects. The methodology applied in the project has the advantage of using non-invasive and replicable techniques, as well as the possibility of spreading the results both to academia and to the general public. It was designed with a triple aim in mind: to be proportional to the available data, to be universally replicable, and to function as repository of information. 3D models may be used for dissemination purposes, but their final aim is to be used for current and future research purposes.