This volume represents the outcome of the meeting of the Computer Working Group of the International Association of Egyptologists (Informatique & Égyptologie) held in Liège in 2010 (6-8 July) under the auspices of the Ramses Project. The papers are based on presentations given during this meeting and have been selected in order to cover three main thematic areas of research at the intersection of Egyptology and Information Technology: (1) the construction, management and use of Ancient Egyptian annotated corpora; (2) the problems linked to hieroglyphic encoding; (3) the development of databases in the fields of art history, philology and prosopography. The contributions offer an up-to-date state of the art, discuss the most promising avenues for future research, developments and implementation, and suggest solutions to longstanding issues in the field.

Two general trends characterize the projects laid out here: the desire for online accessibility made available to the widest possible audience; and the search for standardization and interoperability. The efforts in these directions are admittedly of paramount importance for the future of Egyptological research in general. Indeed, for the present and increasingly for the future, one cannot overemphasize the (empirical and methodological) impact of a generalized access to structured data of the highest possible quality that can be browsed and exchanged without loss of information.

Notice des auteurs

Stéphane POLIS is Research Associate at the National Fund for Scientific Research (Belgium). His fields of research are Ancient Egyptian linguistics and Late Egyptian philology and grammar. His work focuses on language variation and language change in Ancient Egyptian, with a special interest for the functional domain of modality. He supervises the development of the Ramses Project at the University of Liège with Jean Winand.

Jean WINAND is professor ordinarius at the University of Liège, and currently Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. He specializes in texts and languages of ancient Egypt. His major publications include Études de néo-égyptien. La morphologie verbale (1992); Grammaire raisonnée de l’Égyptien classique (1999, with Michel Malaise); Temps et Aspect en égyptien. Une approche sémantique (2006). He launched the Ramses Project in 2006, which he supervises with Stéphane Polis.

Tradition is central to Egyptology, and this volume discusses and problematises the concept by bringing together the most recent work on archaeological, art historical and philological material from the Predynastic to the Late Period. The eclectic mix of material in this volume takes us from New Kingdom artists in the Theban foothills to Old Kingdom Abusir, and from changing ideas about literary texts to the visual effects of archaising statuary. With themes of diachrony persisting at the centre, aspects of tradition are approached from a variety of perspectives: as sets of conventions abstracted from the continuity of artefactual forms; as processes of knowledge (and practice) acquisition and transmission; and as relevant to the individuals and groups involved in artefact production. The volume is divided into four main sections, the first three of which attempt to reflect the different material foci of the contributions: text, art, and artefacts. The final section collects papers dealing with traditions which span different media.

The concepts of cultural productivity and reproductivity are inspired by the field of text criticism and form common reference points for describing cultural change across contributions discussing disparate kinds of data. Briefly put, productive or open traditions are in a state of flux that stands in dialectic relation to shifting social and historical circumstances, while reproductive or closed traditions are frozen at a particular historical moment and their formulations are thereafter faithfully passed down verbatim. The scholars in this volume agree that a binary categorisation is restrictive, and that a continuum between the two poles of dynamic productivity and static reproductivity is by all means relevant to and useful for the description of various types of cultural production.

This volume represents an interdisciplinary collaboration around a topic of perennial interest, a rarity in a field increasingly fractured by progressive specialisation.

Todd GILLEN earned his PhD in Egyptology from Macquarie University, Sydney, and worked as a postdoctoral fellow for the Ramses project at the University of Liège. He has published on a variety of topics relating to ancient Egyptian text and culture of the New Kingdom. He is currently pursuing a career in psychology and counselling.

Cet ouvrage est conçu comme un guide destiné à accompagner les visiteurs de l’exposition Toutankhamon, à la découverte du pharaon oublié (organisée par Europa Expo au centre d’exposition de la gare TGV internationale de Liège-Guillemins, du 14 décembre 2019 au 30 août 2020) et permet de contextualiser la visite en approfondissant les divers thèmes abordés. Près d’un siècle après la découverte la plus retentissante de l’histoire de l’archéologie, l’exposition vise, à travers une muséologie immersive et un parcours narratif et pédagogique, à raconter et expliquer l’histoire croisée de Howard Carter et du jeune pharaon qu’il a permis d’exhumer de l’oubli. Sont ainsi évoqués le parcours singulier de Howard Carter, son opiniâtre quête de la tombe de Toutankhamon, l’exploitation scientifique de sa découverte, l’Égypte dans laquelle Toutankhamon a grandi, puis régné, la vie quotidienne, les croyances et la production artistique à cette époque mouvementée de l’histoire pharaonique. Les avancées les plus récentes de notre connaissance de l’enfant-roi grâce aux technologies et méthodes d’investigation les plus modernes sont également envisagées, avant de terminer par l’impact que cette incroyable découverte a pu avoir sur l’art, la science archéologique et égyptologique et la vision collective que nous partageons désormais de la civilisation des pharaons. Richement illustré, le catalogue s’articule autour des différents thèmes abordés par l’exposition, mais aussi des choix muséographiques qui ont présidé à la réalisation de celle-ci. Il rassemble plus de 60 essais rédigés par des experts internationaux qui présentent les résultats les plus récents de leurs recherches et offre un regard renouvelé sur une série d’objets bien connus, tout en présentant nombre de pièces encore jamais montrées au public.