Digitisation and Digital Reconstruction at the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich.

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As part of the Digital Heritage Research Colloquium, Dr. Melanie Flossmann & Carl Elkins from the State Museum of Egyptian Art + LMU Munich Inst. for Egyptology will present a lecture titled “Digitisation and Digital Reconstruction at the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich.”

Abstract:

The State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich (SMAEK) is currently undertaking digitisation and digital reconstruction initiatives that aim to serve both scholarly investigation and public communication. Focusing primarily on statues in the museum’s collection, we demonstrate how such methods extend beyond documentation and archiving. Digital reconstruction is not only a compelling means of visualisation but also a research tool capable of generating and interrogating questions that might otherwise remain unasked. Advances in photorealistic modelling, texturing and rendering enable the testing of hypotheses concerning not only an object’s original appearance but also its materiality and original display context. By foregrounding process rather than product, digital presentations invite transparent enquiry, in which every interpretative decision can be discussed and scrutinised. Within the museum setting, these approaches foster critical dialogue and reveal dimensions of objects that would otherwise remain unnoticed, thereby making collections more tangible to both scholarly and general audiences.

The lecture takes place on Thursday, 15 January 2026, at 18:00 c.t., in Lecture Hall A119, LMU Main Building, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1.

Flyer Download: Dr Flossmann and Elkins Public Lecture (JPG, 4,926 KB)