Faces Revealed Project. Analysis of the yellow coffins in the Gregorian Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian coffins are complex objects from both their symbolic and religious point of view. During the long history of Ancient Egypt, coffins were subjected to substantial modifications in form, decoration and style, as well as in their traditions and use. For their value, these objects can be studied only with a multidimensional approach: from the materials used for their construction to their ideological and religious value. In this holistic vision of studying materials, in collaboration with the Vatican Coffin Project, Faces Revealed Project was born in 2018 and funded by the European fellowship Marie Skłodowska-Curie (H2020-MSCA-GF 2019: 895130) in 2019.
The project focuses on the geometry and the volumetry of the anthropoid yellow coffin lids which are worth being investigated as isolated elements. The analysis uses photogrammetry and 3D models, which allow the observation of the objects, digitally “switching off” the painted layer, and adding important elements to the knowledge of the coffins, especially in terms of construction, production and ancient reuse, themes that are at the centre of the international debate.
This article wants to summarize the first results the of Faces Revealed Project on 11 yellow coffins in the Musei Vaticani, one of the partners of the project together with the Museo Egizio di Torino, la University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Politecnico di Milano.