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| Egyptian Egyptologist Aliaa Ismail |
From
Madrid to Seti I, Aliaa Ismail’s journey takes an in- teresting path between
heritage and technology. When the 26-year-old chose to major in Egyptology, she
never imagined that she would one day be the onsite manager of one of Egypt’s
most important archaeological projects.
Ismail double majored in architectural
engineering andEgyptology at the American University in Cairo (AUC). “At AUC, I
really got to enjoy Egyptology as it really was something unique and very
specific to my heritage. It’s always good to be involved in your heritage,” she
says.
Under
the supervision of the Egyptian Ministry of Antiqui- ties, the Theban
Necropolis Preservation Initiative utilizes digital technology to preserve
cultural heritage.
Ismail’s role as director of the training center for Luxor’s
3D scanning and documentation is to lead a team of scientists working on cre-
ating exact facsimiles of tombs, including Seti I’s tomb, that are, or will
soon be, closed to the public for conservation.
She
explains that “3D scanning is basically a method for understanding the surface
that you are dealing with. When you look at something, what you see is not what
you get.For example, a flat wall is not flat, it has details, it has scratches,
very minor things that you cannot see but only feel,” explains Ismail. “What we
try to do is get this data that you can only feel into a form where you can
actually see it. Understanding objects in this way allows you to conserve them
and to docu- ment them better because it gives you a permanent record as they
exist right now.”
Located
in a small lateral valley in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, the tomb of Seti
I was discovered in October 1817 by Giovanni Battista Belzoni, and quickly made
international headlines with exhibits held in London in 1821, and later in
Paris. The tomb, which is the largest in the Valley of the Kings, remained
closed to tourists for some four decades before be- ing officially reopened in
2016.
In
collaboration with the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Conservation
in Spain and the University of Ba- sel in Switzerland, the Mapping Project
focuses on sustain- ability and knowledge transfer, and depends both on devel-
oped technologies and human skills. It began in March 2016 with the recording
of the vast Nineteenth Dynasty tomb of Seti I, and will include the development
of a new training center for digital technology in conservation at
Stoppelaëre´s House, also known as Hassan Fathy’s house.
“The Factum Foundation
would like to have an Egyptian team of up to 10 people onsite in Luxor. What
we’ve started doing is training them two at a time, and the ones we have now
are brilliant and very recep- tive to understanding new technology,” says
Ismail, explaining the eventual results will help enable conservators, scholars
and historians to see various layers of each artifact and understand the
complex history that comes with it, just by its texture and color.
Although
Ismail now gets along well with the team, she says it was a real challenge at
first. “I’m leading a team of men and that’s hard in a place like Luxor where
women are perceived to [have a lower status] than men,” says Ismail. “I had to
establish myself in a manner enabling them to perceive me [positively], and not
be threatened by me as a woman, as a boss.”
