Within the Project we collected for the first time papyri from Elephantine island in ten different languages and scripts from all over the world. Joins between papyrus fragments could be identified. Methods for the virtual unfolding of the papyri have been developed. We were able to virtually unfold and unroll a papyrus package and read its text. We are the first Egyptological project using the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) for the encoding of texts. The whole ERC-database is online.
When reconstructing the cultural history of Elephantine we focus on some key questions (females in society, religions, multiculturalism). As a lot of foreigners lived on Elephantine island, the aspect of migration in Ancient Egypt was tackled. The project is based in Germany, where migration is currently a central issue, and thus interesting dimensions opened for the project: The impact was reflected by the national and international media.
The PI and the team members gave more than 130 papers and lectures about the ERC-project. In Egypt, the work was presented at the International Congress of Egyptologists in Cairo where the project had its own panel and the PI and three team members presented their work. Lectures were given in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Argonne, Athens, Bari, Basel, Berlin, Bonn, Boston, Bruxelles, Cairo, Cambridge, Castelldefels, Chicago, Cologne, Florence, Frauenwörth, Frejus, Granada; Grenoble, Göttingen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Harvard, Khartoum, Kuala Lumpur, Lecce, Leipzig, London, Magdeburg, Maine, Mainz, Munich, Namibia, New York, New Hampshire, Paris, Piaski, Pisa, Portsmouth, Princeton, Rom, Sacley, San Antonio, Sommerset West, Strasbourg, UNESCO, Utrecht, Venice, Vienna, Warsaw, Washington D.C. etc.
Media Reaction about the PI and the ERC-Project:
More than 25 media reports were made by: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Die Zeit, Tagesspiegel, TAZ, Die Welt, Aachener Nachrichten, Spektrum der Wissenschaften, Archaeologie-Online, SMB Blog, SPK-Magazin, Berliner Antike Kolleg, Europäische Union, European Research Council Magazin, Newsweek, Prada TV, rbb, ARD etc.