What Lies Beneath? Exploring The Use Of Digital Archaeological Techniques

Pauline Carroll explores the future of museum displays at the Museo Egizio, Turin.

- Pauline Carroll

Museum curators today are facing ongoing challenges to make their collections more relevant for a digital age. The ‘romanticised’ museum of the past has been replaced by the scientific and digital museum of the present and the future. Museum visitors are less willing to read labels, so it is important now more than ever to transform the way that artefacts are presented – moving away from the more traditional methods of simply displaying objects with labels in glass cases, to a more visual narrative, combining science and technology to bring the objects to life and give them a voice of their own through visual display.

The Museo Egizio has seen significant changes to its galleries through major refurbishment over the last decade and is actively exploring new techniques for digital display. I recently attended a Summer School held at the museum, titled Egyptologists as Museum Curators – an immersive seven-day course delivered by professors from the University of Pisa and curators from the museum. The course attracted an international cohort and whilst being taught in English, I was the only English student on the course! Under extremely strict conditions, including removing all jewellery and always wearing gloves, we came face to face with objects from the museum display cases – a fantastic opportunity to get a full understanding of object handling and identification. Meanwhile guided tours of the museum stores and galleries, led by the curators, provided an excellent opportunity to explore the museum through the eyes of a curator.

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