Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/77744
Scanning ■ ■ ■ ■ More than 2,300 years ago, a noblewoman named Meret-it-es, from Mid- dle Egypt, began her journey to the afterlife. Her body was prepared in the customary way for a person of her stature at the time, and placed in an elab- orately decorated coffi n that would assist her in this voyage. Various objects were placed alongside her coffi n, to be used during and after her passage to the next life. Th e coffi n itself—consisting of an inner anthropomorphic- shaped container for the body and an outer rectangular sarcophagus—was painted with representatives of deities meant to ensure her resurrection, along with intricate hieroglyphs and texts of ancient funerary spells. Th e coffi n set, along with the other fragile objects, are part of the funer- ary assemblage of Meret-it-es, acquired by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, and displayed in the new Egyptian galleries, part of the museum's extensive expansion initiative. Despite having brand- new space, setting up a museum exhibit is an art form in itself—there's lighting, traffi c fl ow, viewpoint, and other logistics to consider. For the Meret-it-es collection, museum planners determined that the optimal posi- tion for displaying the coffi n would be upright rather than fl at (horizontal) due to the size of the room—in order to display the larger outer coffi n, the inner piece would have to be exhibited upright. Also, the vertical place- ment added a desired drama to the installation. However, there were much more important factors to consider, particu- larly whether the vertical placement would add undue physical stress on the precious artifact, eventually causing irreparable damage. Although the coffi n has survived for more than two millennium, it is made from wood, which expands and contracts as it ages, thereby weakening or damaging the object. Would the vertical display position hasten that problem? To answer this vital question, Kate Garland, senior conservator of objects at the museum, turned to digital technology. June/July 2012 35