3DVisA Resources

3DVisA Index of 3D Projects: Sculpture

Statues of Pharaoh Pepi I at Hierakonpolis

This project aimed to demonstrate the capabilities of close-range photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning. Two statues of Pharaoh Pepi I were scanned in 3D and the data used to create computer models with 3D Studio Max software. Also created was a 3D vector map of the line features extracted form the stereo images.

The statues were found in 1897 in a temple of the ancient city of Hierakonpolis. Tey are now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The larger figure is 178 cm, the small one about 65 cm high. They are dated to the 23rd century BC and are considered to be the oldest surviving life-size figures made of metal, namely of sheets of copper. In 1996, an extensive technological examination, leading towards the restoration of the statues began as a joint project between the Egyptian Museum Cairo, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Abteilung Kairo and the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz, Germany.

[More information will be provided in due course.]

Project dates: 1996-?

Resource status: ?

Contributors:

Sources and further details:

Böhler, W., Bordas Vicent, M., Heinz, G., Marbs, A. and Müller, H. (2004), 'High Quality Scanning and Modeling of Monuments and Artifacts', FIG Working Week 2004, Athens, Greece, May 22-27, 2004, (PDF), pp. 1-17.

Heinz, G. (date?), Pharaoh Pepi I: Documentation of the Oldest Known Life-size Metal Sculpture Using Laser Scanning and Photogrammetry, Mainz: i3mainz – Institute for Spatial Information and Surveying Technology, (PDF), pp. 1-5.

Heinz, G. and Müller, H. (2005), 'Surveying of Pharaohs in the 21st Century', New Measurement Technology and its Application to Archaeological and Engineering Surveys, FIG Working Week 2005 and GSDI-8, Cairo, Egypt April 16-21, (PDF), pp. 1-8.

Record compiled by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel. Last updated: 11 September 2006.

© Egyptian Museum, Cairo, i3mainz and 3DVisA, 2006.