Egyptian Museum of Turin, ME-Scripta, a laboratory for the study of artefacts, is born

A unique laboratory dedicated to the restoration and study of papyri, open to scholars and researchers from universities and museums. This is the new initiative of the Egyptian Museum of Turin, financed by Fondazione Crt with a 3 million euro fund. "This is a project that will last ten years and will allow us to recover and study important evidence of the administrative life of ancient Egypt, making it available to scholars and curators," describes Museum Director Christian Greco.

The Laboratory of the Egyptian Museum will be called ME-Script and will be directed by Susanne Töpfer, curator in charge of the Egyptian Museum's papyrological collection, with the ambition of uniting the work of restorers with that of philologists, to enable the recovery of artefacts and the study of texts belonging to different types of ancient codices, up to Coptic bindings. It employs two curators, three collaborators, an apprentice and a data manager.

For the first time, points out the Museum's president, Evelina Christillin, we are registering such a significant funding destined solely for the support of research activities for an institution that boasts over 200 years of history and that started out as a collection museum and then became, thanks to Ernesto Schiapparelli, a point of reference for excavation and artefact recovery activities". A "Copernican revolution", points out Director Greco, in support of intangible activities related to research and study.

"I believe it is important for Fondazione Crt," explains president Anna Maria Poggi, "to support a project that will be able to support the museum's research and study activities and consolidate connections with the academic world, thanks to strong public-private interaction through partnerships such as this one.

Strong with a historical heritage consisting of a thousand manuscripts, with seven writing systems in eight different languages, developed over three millennia, the Egyptian Museum project will be able to involve over 150 professionals in nine years, who will be able to access training programmes, including international summer schools, internships, technical workshops on multispectral imaging, advanced restoration.