Expansion of “Aegyptiaca. Journal of the History of Reception of Ancient Egypt”

• Applicant: Dr. Florian Ebeling
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies ; Ancient History ; History of Philosophy ; Art History ; Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 388503931

With this project the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft has funded the establishment of the specialist journal on the history of the reception of Ancient Egypt Aegyptiaca. Journal of the History of Reception of Ancient Egypt. Aegyptiaca has generated over 30,000 downloads with its five issues and 61 articles so far. The reception is as international as the circle of authors, who so far come from Germany, England, Ireland, France, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, Austria and the USA. Among them are young scholars as well as renowned cultural scientists (Jan Assmann, Carlo Ginzburg, Dieter Borchmeyer, among others). The papers are widely cited in the specialist literature and numerous papers are submitted to the editors on an ongoing basis. After discussions with the advisory board, the editorial team has come up with the following plan for the further development of the journal: In the future, Aegyptiaca should also be published as a dynamic HTML version in which the articles can be cited precisely, but especially in order to integrate digital media into the articles (“enhanced publication”). The staff of Heidelberg University Library will initially provide intensive training for a research assistant who will programme the HTML pages for the duration of the project and introduce the editorial team and all associated staff to the work processes in such a way that it can be taken over independently by the editorial team. In addition, the digital media must be made available on the servers of Heidelberg University Library so that they can be easily and appropriately embedded in the documents. We started with printed documents that are considered classics in the history of the reception of pharaonic Egypt; Heidelberg University Library makes these texts available in high-quality scans. Images, audio and video files will be made accessible via heidICON, the object and multimedia database of Heidelberg University Library. Since we can rely on a proven online archive, the rights have already been clarified or experienced expertise is available to clarify the rights. The close and proven cooperation with the Heidelberg University Library and thus with the specialist information service Propylaeum will be further expanded.

• DFG Programme: Science Communication, Research Data, eResearch (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)