Handling Artifacts from a Distance Assessing Museums’ Digital Collections Silas Klein Cardoso (orcid.org/ 0000-0001-8266-8693) 1 The Digital Collections The three digital collections under review can be categorized as ‘national museum databases.’ The British Museum Collection Online (BMCO, britishmuseum. org/ collection) and the Israel Museum Collections (IMC, imj.org.il/ en/ collections) approach objects and cultures encyclopedically, providing assets for world histories, while the Musée du Louvre’s Collections (MLC, collections.louvre.fr/ en/ ) displays mainly (but not only) artworks linked to French collections. The BMCO was released in 2007 and revamped in April 2020 to display more than half of the objects acquired during the museum’s 269 years. 1 Focused on research and built upon the museum’s internal database, the BMCO is a 40-years in the making catalog that sometimes refers to 250-year-old registers, a fact that calls for reflection. 2 Similarly focused on research, the MLC was released in July 2020 to display all objects administered by the Musée du Louvre. Besides items acquired during the museum ’ s 229 years, 3 the database holds the inventories of the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix, MNR items ( Musées Nationaux Récupération ), and artworks on long-term loans from other French or foreign institutions, such as the Bibliothèque Nationale de France , the Musée des Arts Décoratifs , the British Museum and the Heraklion. 4 The IMC was released in 2013 to display the Israel Museum collection in Jerusalem. The placement of the database under the tab “Explore the Collection” and the limited visualization, export, and search functions imply a focus on the average museum visitor rather than the scholar. 1 An act of the British Parliament created the museum on June 7, 1753. 2 https: / / www.britishmuseum.org/ about-us/ british-museum-story/ collecting-histories. 3 Following a decree after the French Revolution, the museum opened to the public in 1793. 4 https: / / collections.louvre.fr/ en/ page/ apropos. DOI 10.24053/ VvAa-2022-0009 Verstehen von Anfang an 7/ 1 (2022) Handling Artifacts from a Distance 87 2 Contents All three collections hold items from different classes, periods, and places. At their core are their search engines and the page with individual entries. The latter conveys information (e. g. titles, descriptions, provenance, dating, material, size), images, and a bibliography of the items. • BMCO: Ca. 4.5 million items and 1.9 million images of eight departments: Africa, Oceania and the Americas; Asia; Britain, Europe and Prehistory; Coins and Medals; Egypt and Sudan; Greece and Rome; Middle East; Prints and Drawings. The database includes information on the museum ’ s activity and collecting approach. • MLC: Ca. 480,000 artworks of eight curatorial departments: Near Eastern Antiquities; Egyptian Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Paintings; Medieval, Renaissance and Modern Sculpture; Prints and Drawings; Medieval, Renaissance and Modern Decorative Arts. • IMC: Ca. 20,000 items 5 of five curatorial wings: Archaeology; Art; Jewish art and Life; museum archives; and information centers. 3 Search Functions The IMC has limited search functions. Despite good English/ Hebrew terms indexing, the user is limited to navigating the entries through the infinite scroll of the curatorial wings. In contrast, MCL and BMCO have powerful search engines. The MCL opens with a search field running with an auto-complete function. Once a term is entered, one can filter results or proceed with an advanced search that, unfortunately, has mainly free text fields. The BMCO search field is sided by a pre-set dropdown filter and its auto-complete conveniently provides categories and the number of items for each term. The filter menu replaces an “advanced search”. One must be aware that the success of searches is contingent (1) on the quality of data entered into the individual entries and (2) on the ability of users to understand the catalogs’ logic (e. g., language, focus). Alternatively, one can explore the collections via curated galleries as presented on the landing pages. 5 The information is ambiguous: https: / / www.imj.org.il/ en/ content/ curatorial-services. Verstehen von Anfang an 7/ 1 (2022) DOI 10.24053/ VvAa-2022-0009 88 Silas Klein Cardoso 4 Help Functions BMCO is the only one to present an online guide. 6 5 Data Export Whereas the IMC provides no export functions and users must request images through a form, 7 the BMCO and MLC enable users to export search results, objects’ descriptions, and pictures. Search results can be downloaded as flat files ( *.csv ) and object descriptions are either integrated into the search results (BMCO) or can be exported as notation files ( *.json ) (MLC). Images can be downloaded individually in both databases or as a set of images ( *.zip ) at the MLC. As a rule, the right of free image reproduction is extended to users for most pedagogic and scientific uses. 8 6 User Exchange There is no possibility of exchange between users for their assumed distinction between institutional and social knowledge. 9 Users are encouraged to report errors or misusages of language in the BMCO. 7 Possible Applications in Academic Teaching The myriad of objects from different classes, times, and places enables virtually unlimited teaching applications. The relative raw form of the data, however, will ask for scripted activities devised to match the instructors’ specific aims. The examples below show some possible paths. Analyses of the high-resolution pictures and descriptions can be used for developing analytical skills. Historical incursions to events or periods can be planned to use scripted analyses of items. For example, often cited artifacts such as the Black Obelisk or Sennacherib’s sculptures representing the Lachish conquest appear regrettably cropped in most history books, which hinders their potential as historical sources. Students can investigate the pieces based 6 https: / / www.britishmuseum.org/ collection/ collection-online/ guide. 7 https: / / www.imj.org.il/ en/ content/ curatorial-services. 8 BMCO provides CC-By-NC-SA 4.0 licenses for most images. About the MLC, see https: / / collections.louvre.fr/ en/ page/ cgu. 9 Fouseki/ Vacharopoulou, Digital. DOI 10.24053/ VvAa-2022-0009 Verstehen von Anfang an 7/ 1 (2022) Handling Artifacts from a Distance 89 on BMCO and compare items from similar periods and places to understand the artifacts’ visual rhetoric. 10 Teaching using inscriptional sources such as the Dead Sea Scrolls (IMC), 11 the Siloam inscription (BMCO), or the stela of Moabite king Mesha (MLC) can be carried out for the acquisition of ancient languages, epigraphic training, or text-critical skills. Research-oriented sessions can benefit from guided searches. Iconographic(-exegetical) training can be pursued by selecting and analyzing data. 12 Students may formulate research questions from the contents given in class (e. g., search for a specific motif from a certain period and region), create a set of images, and describe them using the three steps of the well-known Panofsky method. 13 For example, one can study different patterns of representation of the “menacing/ smiting god”-motif in various media of Ugarit and Minet el-Beida, e. g., in the “Baal with Thunderbolt”-stela and bronze figurines (MLC). Another script can introduce students to reception history or Visual Exegesis. For example, one can analyze how different woodcutters such as Albrecht Dürer and Peregrino da Cesena visually interpreted Samson’s fight with the Lion (MLC). More intangible critical qualities such as hermeneutical awareness and epistemological curiosity 14 can also be developed with the help of the databases. An object description, its classification, and presence in a collection result from a series of decisions and assumptions that have hermeneutical implications. The archaeological artifact, as found in a database entry, suffers a series of displacements: temporal, spatial-geographical (e. g. regional, climate), contextual (from excavation to the museum; from assemblage to individual artifact), ideological (from artifact to art 15 ), and technological (from 3D-artifact to 2D-pictures; from localized assemblages to unified databases). Students can elaborate on a given object displacements’ hermeneutical implications or analyze systematically a set of object descriptions and respective categorizations. The exercise may also prove helpful to debates on the connection between collecting “Biblical artifacts” and the practice’s colonial foundations. 16 10 See Uehlinger, Eyewitnesses. 11 http: / / dss.collections.imj.org.il. 12 As a problem-orient method, iconography implies formulating questions, constructing a corpus, and applying steps of interpretation. Unfortunately, the former two are not emphasized. See Müller, Iconography. 13 See Panofsky, Meaning. In Biblical Studies, see Keel, Recht, 267-72; de Hulster et al., Introduction, 36-38. 14 I. e., the ability to see beyond texts/ objects to pursue their raisons d’être or what surrounds their manifestation. Freire, Pedagogy, 45f. 15 See Sonik, Art/ ifacts. 16 See Cuéllar, Empire; Greenberg/ Hamilakis, Archaeology. Verstehen von Anfang an 7/ 1 (2022) DOI 10.24053/ VvAa-2022-0009 8 Prospects The last two years have forced us to accept seeing faces, visiting places, and handling things from a distance as never before. Teaching had to reinvent itself overnight, and exegetical tutors started to face yet another challenge: How to include material remains from the places and cultures referred to in the Bible and related ancient Near Eastern literature in classes? 17 While there are aspects that the digital cannot fulfill, these collections can be valuable allies to overcome the scarcity of resources, gain distinctive perspectives, and get acquainted with other data relevant to the formation of exegetical skills. While the quality of searching properties varies, the materials still can be productively used if the instructors were careful to provide students with the appropriate basics of the databases and commit to creating well-devised teaching scripts. Bibliography Cuéllar, Gregory L.: Empire, the British Museum, and the Making of the Biblical Scholar in the Nineteenth Century, Cham 2019. Fouseki, Kalliopi/ Vacharopoulou, Kalliopi: Digital Museum Collections and Social Media. Ethical Considerations of Ownership and Use, JCMS 11 (2013): 1-10. Freire, Paulo: Pedagogy of the Heart, New York 1998. Greenberg, Rafael/ Hamilakis, Yannis: Archaeology, Nation, and Race. Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel, Cambridge 2022. Hulster, Izaak J. de et al.: Introduction. Iconographic Exegesis, Method and Practice, in: Hulster, Izaak J. et al. (Ed.): Iconographic Exegesis of the Hebrew Bible/ Old Testament. An Introduction to Its Method and Practice, Göttingen 2015, 19-42. Keel, Othmar: Das Recht der Bilder gesehen zu werden (OBO 122), Fribourg/ Göttingen 1992. Müller, Marion G.: Iconography and Iconology as a Visual Method and Approach, in: Margolis, Eric/ Pauwels, Luc (Ed.): The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods, Los Angeles 2011, 283-97. Panofsky, Erwin: Meaning in the Visual Arts, New York 1955. Sonik, Karen: Art/ ifacts and Art Works . De-Colonizing the Study and Museum Display of Ancient and Non-Western Things, in: Sonik, Karen (Ed.): Art/ ifacts and Art Works in the Ancient World, University Park 2021, 1-82. Uehlinger, Christoph: Neither Eyewitnesses, nor Windows to the Past, but Valuable Testimony in Its Own Right. Remarks on Iconography, Source Criticism, and An- 17 To be sure, the change was primarily felt in the northernmost part of the Americas and Central Europe since for people with disabilities and from places impoverished, marginalized, or facing political distress, unavailability of resources is standard. In fact, to these, the pandemic probably contributed to accessibility. 90 Silas Klein Cardoso DOI 10.24053/ VvAa-2022-0009 Verstehen von Anfang an 7/ 1 (2022) Handling Artifacts from a Distance 91 cient Data Processing, in: Williamson, Hugh G. M. (Ed.): Understanding the History of Ancient Israel (PBA 143), Oxford 2007, 173-228. Verstehen von Anfang an 7/ 1 (2022) DOI 10.24053/ VvAa-2022-0009