Representing Ancient Egyptian Inscriptions of the Old Kingdom Digitally: Dynamic Visualizations of Poetic Form and Inscriptional Layout
Julie Stauder-Porchet · 2023
Texts, and texts as inscriptions in particular, are complex objects, posing challenges to digital representation. What may be defined as the linguistic text (the text as an ordered composition of words) is not only a matter of lexicon and grammar. Relevant dimensions also include intertextual relations with other texts (notably in terms of formulae and formulaic schemes), as well as the poetic form, or structure, of the text, which can be complemented by features of inscriptional layout. More broadly, what may be called the inscriptional text (the text as a physically dimensional and architecturally localized artefact inscribed in stone) often carries further significations. Based on two practical examples of Old Kingdom inscriptions (Harkhuf, Hezi), the paper will discuss which dimensions should be present in a digital corpus of inscriptions as complex, multi-dimensional objects.