Wood under the lens: Unveiling ancient Egyptian heritage

IF 3.5 2区综合性期刊 0 ARCHAEOLOGY

Journal of Cultural Heritage Pub Date : 2025-06-19 DOI:10.1016/j.culher.2025.06.002

Alan Crivellaro , Flavio Ruffinatto , Monika Zöller-Engelhardt , Alma Piermattei , Tina Beck

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Studying wooden objects from ancient Egypt provides valuable insights into past economies, craftsmanship, and trade networks. However, traditional wood identification methods are often invasive, restricting research on fragile and museum-conserved items. Here, we present WoodScope, an interdisciplinary approach combining visual, macroscopic, and microscopic techniques to enhance the identification accuracy of ancient Egyptian wooden objects while preserving their integrity. Applied to 187 nearly 4000-year-old objects from diverse funerary contexts, WoodScope revealed significant links between material choices and cultural practices, including the first documented use of grape wood in a funerary cow model. This approach bridges preservation ethics, scientific precision and challenges related to object accessibility, offering a transformative framework for studying ancient wooden objects, advancing archaeological research, and informing conservation strategies for ancient Egypt’s cultural heritage.

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镜头下的木头：揭开古埃及遗产的面纱

研究古埃及的木制物品可以为了解过去的经济、工艺和贸易网络提供有价值的见解。然而，传统的木材鉴定方法往往是侵入性的，限制了对易碎和博物馆保存物品的研究。在这里，我们提出了WoodScope，一种结合视觉、宏观和微观技术的跨学科方法，以提高古埃及木器的识别准确性，同时保持其完整性。WoodScope应用于187件来自不同丧葬背景的近4000年前的物品，揭示了材料选择和文化习俗之间的重要联系，包括在丧葬牛模型中首次记录使用葡萄木。这种方法将保存伦理、科学精度和与文物可及性相关的挑战联系起来，为研究古代木器、推进考古研究和为古埃及文化遗产的保护策略提供了一个变革性的框架。

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来源期刊

Journal of Cultural Heritage 综合性期刊-材料科学：综合

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

9.70%

发文量

166

审稿时长

52 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Cultural Heritage publishes original papers which comprise previously unpublished data and present innovative methods concerning all aspects of science and technology of cultural heritage as well as interpretation and theoretical issues related to preservation.