Information Technology and Egyptology in 2008

The Computer Working Group of the International Association of Egyptologists, usually called by the name Informatique et Egyptologie, has been in existence since 1983. Its initial existence was primarily driven by the need to devise ways of encoding, representing, and printing hieroglyphs on computers. But for the past 20 years the group has been focusing the attempts of Egyptologists to find creative and above all useful ways of using information technology to aid in the research and teaching of Ancient Egypt, and for providing a forum for discussion of these methods. Other than its work with hieroglyphs, the group was responsible for bringing the Internet to the attention of Egyptologists in the mid 1990s.

Previous publications of the group, in addition to conference proceedings, include the Manuel de Codage (the guide to the encoding of hieroglyphs), Hieroglyphica (an extended library of hieroglyphic signs), and the Multilingual Egyptological Thesaurus (a standardised set of terms for categorising objects, available in English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese).

The 2008 meeting took place in July at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, where 16 papers were presented on topics including databases, complex systems, 3D modelling, textual analysis systems, the uses of the internet for sharing photographs, and bibliography. This publication provides an essential snapsot of the present uses to which IT is placed in the study of Ancient Egypt.

Nigel Strudwick is a curator at the British Museum, who has excavated in Egypt for many years. His main interests are in the Old Kingdom, and in the archaeology of Thebes. He has been an active member of Informatique et Egyptologie since 1986, and has chaired the group since 2000. His IT work has ranged widely; he is most proud of almost single-handedly introducing Egyptology to the Internet in 1994–5.