Following the joint higher committee of the Franco-Egyptian Centre for Study of the Temples of Karnak (CFEETK / MAE-CNRS), held in Cairo February 15, 2016, we are pleased to announce the opening of the online consultation interface CFEETK archives in high resolution.
Since 1967, the Franco-Egyptian Centre for Study of the Temples of Karnak (CFEETK) is the structure that is in charge of research and conservation work inside the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak. It is under the Ministry of Antiquities of Egypt (MAE) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). In addition to these own archives, the lab also has archival fonds related to the several Directors of Karnak’s works, such as Georges Legrain (1895-1917), Maurice Pillet (1920-1925), Henri Chevrier (1926-1954), Chehata Adam, Farid el-Chaboury, Mohammed Hammad and Farag Abd el-Mottaleb (1954-1966).
Under the Karnak project started in 2013 (CNRS, USR 3172 – CFEETK / UMR 5140, Équipe ENiM – Program « Investissement d’Avenir » ANR-11-LABX-0032-01 Labex ARCHIMEDE), the CFEETK has set up a policy of systematic acquisition of the epigraphic documentation of the temples of Karnak. These documents constitute a significant addition to the existing archival fonds, preserving the information as it is today in the temple.
The whole of accessible documents is deposited in Nakala, service set up by the very large facility Huma-Num (CNRS) for the storage, documentation and enrichment of data in a secure warehouse that ensures both accessibility data and quotability in time. To date, just over 10,000 photographs can be freely downloaded in full resolution. The number of documents available in the archives of CFEETK will steadily increase with the progress of various documentary projects of the lab, and especially the Karnak project. In particular, Nakala allows to make the metadata interoperable, that is to say that favors the ability to connect to other existing deposits and to make harvestable by exploration metadata tools (SPARQL, RdF ).
The photographs are accessible by topographical exploration of Karnak’s the temple (areas of the temple, monument, objects, etc.), by date or by author. A search engine complements these tools to provide, via Karnak project, a chronological access to photographs.
The access interface to the CFEETK’s archives, fruit of documentary work done through different tools (ArcheoGrid Karnak, Nakala, the Karnak project) involves all information available in the various projects of the lab and its partners to offer the widest and most complete access possible to the Karnak documentation.