PROJECT PROGRAMMATIC ACTIVITY:

1. scientific research
2. museums and galleries
3. informatization of cultural institutions

PROJECT GOALS:
To build an aimed and selected database of relevant monuments pertaining to cultural influences of Egyptian civilization in the Croatian historical area based on the institutional and private collections in Croatia.

In initial phase of project development, the plan is to process the Egyptological monuments kept in the Egyptian, Ancient and Numismatic collections of the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb (AMZ). Simultaneously with processing the monuments from the AMZ, we plan to process all the artifacts kept in other museum collections in Croatia and to introduce the results into the database. After processing the collections of museum institutions in Zagreb (the Mimara Museum in Zagreb, the Museum of Contemporary Art - the Benko Horvat Collection, the Museum of the City of Zagreb), we plan to process scientifically the artifacts kept in museums outside of Zagreb (the Dubrovnik museums - the Archaeological Museum of Dubrovnik, the Archaelogical Museum of Split, the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula, the Archaeological Museum of Zadar, the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek, the Museum of the City of Varaždin, and variety of town and regional museums with minor collections) that have not yet been interpreted and processed, and to introduce the results into the database.

There are more than 3100 artifacts pertaining to the Egyptian civilization kept in the Archaological Museum of Zagreb, important cultural and museum institution of the city of Zagreb and Croatia. The bulk of collection consists of the Egyptian collection by the Austrian undermarshall Franz Koller that was bought for the National Museum in Zagreb in 1868. It comprises about 2300 artifacts of Egyptian origin. Next to the Egyptian collection as a main part of the Egyptological inventory of the Archaeological Museum of Zagreb, there are many other artifacts related to the history of Egypt kept in the museum. There are about 500 pieces of Ptolemaic coinage, and the coins from the Roman era minted in Alexandria kept in the Numismatic collection. The Antique collection is comprised of the statues, statuettes and epigraphic monuments related to the Egyptian cults of Greco-Roman era, originating from the Mediterranean or from the Croatian historical area. During the last 150 years, the collections have been supplemented by a variety of smaller or larger buys and donations by private individuals, so the number of artifacts increases constantly.

There are also smaller or larger collections of Egyptian origin in other museums in Croatia. The most important collections according to the number of artifacts are to be found in the Archaeological Museum of Dubrovnik - the Dubrovnik museums (197), the Archaeological Museum of Split (84), the Mimara Museum in Zagreb (503), the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula (38), the Collection of the St. Euphemia monastery in Kampor on the island of Rab (14), the Archaological collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb (11), the Archaeological Museum of Zadar (11), The Museum of Slavonia in Osijek (10), the Museum of the City of Varaždin (6), the Franciscan monastery in Sinj (6), and in about dozen more town and regional museums with only one or two artifacts. According to our knowledge, there are 4031 artifacts in museum institutions and almost 1000 artifacts in private collections in Croatia. The data on each collection are published in the book entitled Egypt in Croatia by Mladen Tomorad (Barbat, Zagreb, 2003).

Several similar projects are currently in progress in foreign countries, such as EMCP - Egyptologica. Museum Collection Project (main researcher: Gerhard H. de Knegt), Totenbuch project (main researcher: Dr. Irmtraut Munro, Ägyptologisches Seminar der Universität Bonn), and a few projects under the aegis of the CCER (Centre for Computer-aided Egyptological Research, Utrecht University), for example, the Multilingual index of Egyptian treasures cd-roms, Prosopographia Aegypti, Links to the museums with Egyptian collections. These link the Croatian project directly to the contemporary activities in Egyptology. At the beginning of this 2003, the Global Egyptian Museum with about 6.600 artifact started working under the aegis of the Centre for Computer-aided Egyptological Research CCER. By connecting to this project, Croatia could show the great cultural value of artifacts kept in national museum institutions.

The particular value of the Croato-Aegyptica electronica projects is also the fact that it is a pioneer effort aiming to revise and correct the available data published in the catalog and museological works by authors such as Šime Ljubića (Popis Arheološkog odjela Narodnog Zemaljskog Muzeja u Zagrebu, sv. I. - Egipatska sbirka, [The Catalog of the Archaeological Department of the National Land Museum in Zagreb, vol. I : Egyptological Collection], Zagreb, 1889), and Janine Monnet Saleh (Les antiquités égyptiennes de Zagreb. Catalogue raisonné des antiquités égyptiennes conservées au Musée Archéologique de Zagreb en Yougoslavie, Paris, 1970) which are considered relevant even today.

The database as a finalized product, available through different media, will guarantee the comprehensive insight into the rich Croatian Egyptological material for the national and foreign researchers and cultural institutions, offering a practical and quick search through the whole inventory and a data display suitable for the general public.

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT'S SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PART:
Interpretation of the monument material according to the standards for the processing of the museological materials valid in the Republic of Croatia, in cooperation with the experts from the Chair for Museology at the Department for Information Sciences, Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy, and from the Museum Documentation Centre in Zagreb.

The scientific processing of the artifacts would be carried out by Croatian experts from the fields of archaeology, Egyptology, archaology, history and art history with the help and cooperation by the part of numerous foreign Egyptologists. The main researchers for the field of Egyptology are Professor Petar Selem (Department of History, Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy), Igor Uranić (Archaeological Museum in Zagreb), and Mladen Tomorad, M.A. (Department of History, Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy, head of the Computer Laboratory, and the project's main researcher), for the field of numismatics: Ph.D. Ivan Mirnik, and Zdenka Dukat (Archaeological Museum in Zagreb), and for the ancient history: the art historians and archaeologist employed as curators in various museum institutions under direction by Ante Rendić-Miočevićem (Archaeological Museum in Zagreb) and Hrvoje Gračanin (Department of History, Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy).

SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT'S COMPUTER-AIDED RESEARCH PART:
Building a special database based on the M++ application developed by Goran Zlodi. The unique database will be adapted for input and storage of data from the databases of museum information systems (these will be located on the computer servers within the same institutions), and for the purpose of presenting the monumental heritage of the Egyptian civilization from the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman eras kept in the Croatian institutional and private collections. Such a database would enable manifold. reuse of digital content. The adopted forms of presentation, created by automatized generating of interactive multimedia contents from the data stored in the database, would involve a possible distribution through different media: web-pages, printed catalogs, cd-roms, info-kiosks located in the museums, etc.

As the majority of Egyptological collections is unprocessed within the museum information systems for the time being, the project collaborators would help the curators to process and organize the database input. The adopted project's approach is based on the international experiences in the computerization of museum inventories by recognizing the difference between the data for description of a museum artifact with a purpose to manage the museum collections, and the data serving for presentation and communication of the museum inventory to the variety of users. As one cannot foresee how the particular institutions would use different applications to manage the museum collections, it is necessary to implement such a approach to distribuited databases. The link between the categories in respective museum systems and database developed within the project will be established via generic data model (the Dublin Core as a widely accepted standard that enables description and access to heterogeneous material in digital form will be used for its definition).

The digital photographing of all the artifacts and input of the photographs into the database that is enabled by the M++ applications together with the creation of the project's web site which is the responsibility of the web-designer Matija Gračanin (monitor.hr) are also planned.

THE INSTITUTIONS CARRYING THE PROJECT:
1. Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy
Name: Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb
Department: Department of History - The Computer Laboratory
Head of institution: Prof. Neven Budak, dean
Main researcher: Mladen Tomorad, M. Ph., assistant
Address: Ivana Lučića 3
Town: Zagreb
Transfer Account: Zagrebačka banka, 2360000-1101311177 poziv na broj 538

2. Archaeological Museum in Zagreb
Name: Archaeological Museum in Zagreb
Department: Egyptian, Ancient, and Numismatic departments
Head of institution: Ante Rendić-Miočević, director
Asdress: Trg Nikole Šubića Zrniskog 19
Town: Zagreb

INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATING IN THE PROJECT:
Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb: Department of Archaeology, Departmen of Art History, Chair for museology at the Department of Information Sciences, Ivana Lučića 3, Zagreb
Archaeological Museum of Split, Zrinsko-frankopanska 25, Split
Archaeological Museum of Zadar, Trg opatice Čike 1, Zadar
Archaeological Museum of Dubrovnik - The Dubrovnik museums, Pred dvorom 3, Dubrovnik
Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula, Carrarina 3, Pula
The City Museum of Varaždin, Strossmayerovo šetalište 7, Varaždin
The Mimara Museum - Zagreb, Rooseveltov trg 5, Zagreb
The Museum of Slavonia in Osijek, Trg sv. Trojstva 6, Osijek
regional museums in the towns of Križevci, Koprivnica, Hvar, Bribirska glavica, Novigrad in Istria, Kampor on the island of Rab, Sinj, Metković, and Imotski