Discovering the concealed. Photogrammetry as a ‘key tool’ for studying ancient Egyptian objects

In the last few years, digital technologies and 3D models have been brought into frequent use within the ęelds of Archaeology and Egyptology, as well as in Museography. At ęrst, digital models were used as tools for designing, documenting and monitoring objects or for valorisation and dissemination tasks; now their role in scientięc research is emerging. The possibility of creating high-resolution and sub-millimetric reproductions of objects and the opportunity to then measure them, detect surfaces and easily compare forms, volumes and geometry allow us to add more elements to the traditional’ study of the objects and analyse ‘undervalued’ peculiarities and/or concealed elements, such as the geometry of objects. This paper will demonstrate that digital technologies and photogrammetric 3D models are ‘key tools’ for studying ancient Egyptian artefacts. Starting from the main results on yellow coĜns within the Faces Revealed Project, we go on to explain how these results will inform future perspectives of research where digital technologies and ‘human-machine’ interactions can be fundamental to reconstructing the history of ancient societies.