Recently, the China-Egypt Cultural Heritage Digitalization Survey and Research Project has been actively conducted in Egypt. It is a joint effort between Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) and Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) of Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, with a team from SISU’s World Arthistory Institute (WAI) working alongside the Egyptian counterpart. Dr. Xue Jiang, a faculty member at SISU, acts as the team leader.

This project serves as an exploration of bringing Chinese academic principles and methodologies abroad under the Belt and Road Initiative. It is also a new attempt at fostering an academic community to contribute to building a shared future for humanity. It is a package of partnership, including digital scanning, photographing, sorting, and researching thousands of anthropoid wooden coffins excavated since 2018 by SCA’s archaeological team at the Bastet Temple site in northern Saqqara. The final research outcomes will be published globally in Chinese, Arabic, and English.

Professor Zhu Qingsheng, director of WAI and the project’s initiator, remarked it is the first time that Chinese universities’ innovative image theory, conceptions of database, and micro-trace scanning technology are introduced into Egyptian archaeological sites to collect and organize raw materials. This can be seen as a new initiative to showcase and fulfill the university’s academic strategy and vision. The collaboration between Chinese and Egyptian scholars symbolizes Chinese academics into the important competitive arenas of world civilization studies and the establishment of a shared community of human civilization.

Professor Yan Haiying, an Egyptology expert and a key convenor of the project, emphasized that this is the first time Chinese Egyptologists have systematically sorted and studied unpublished “first-hand materials.” The discovery and research of this new material are expected to rewrite some existing theories and shift the research trajectory in Egyptology.

Dr. Xue Jiang, the team leader, shared that the first-phase team consists of five Chinese and six Egyptian members. They conducted digital sampling on their selected 300 anthropoid painted coffins discovered in two shaft tombs, No. 64 and 65, closest to the Bastet Temple. This laid the groundwork for the forthcoming large-scale digitalization and further research.

The project was officially approved by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities on December 24, 2023, after more than a year of careful preparation and preliminary experiments. The first phase was formally launched on May 30, 2024, at the Saqqara Archaeological Site near Cairo. Dr. Ismail, Secretary General of Egypt’s SCA, expressed full support for the project, emphasizing that it represents an innovative mechanism for cultural exchanges between two ancient civilizations during a special visit to SISU.

The China-Egypt Cultural Heritage Digitalization Project is expected to propel cultural exchanges between China and Egypt into broader and deeper dimensions and offer new perspectives and platforms for mutual learning between the two great civilizations.