Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke (Germany): Virtual Unfolding of Folded Papyri

The historical importance of ancient manuscripts is unique, since they provide information about the heritage of ancient cultures. Several texts are hidden in rolled or folded documents. Due to recent improvements with respect to sensitivity and resolution, spectacular disclosures of rolled hidden texts on parchment were possible by X-ray tomography, which will be reviewed. However, revealing text on folded manuscripts, especially on papyri, is even more challenging for two reasons, the folding technique and the delicate material. Manual unfolding is often not possible with respect to the fragile condition of the fragments. Recent results about virtual unfolding will be presented and discussed, first on a mockup to test the algorithm and then on ancient papyrus packages from the papyrus collection of the Musée du Louvre, originating from the island Elephantine near Aswan.
This investigation is part of an ERC starting grant ELEPHANTINE (PI Verena Lepper, curator for Egyptian and Oriental Papyri at the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung Berlin).