This dataset presents a digital edition of the Inventario manoscritto (Manuscript inventory), a handwritten inventory listing the artefacts transferred to the Museo Egizio in Turin following the 1909-1910 excavation season conducted by the Mission Archaeological Italiana (Italian Archaeological Mission) at Gebelein, Upper Egypt, under the direction of Ernesto Schiaparelli.
The original inventory records 1906 archaeological objects, registered under numbers (S.) 11110–13016.
The edition is based on digitized archival scans preserved in the State Archives of Turin under the reference ASTo, MAE, 2° vers., M2 n.17.
Based on the available scans, the inventory has been transcribed from Italian and translated into English. The edition has been published in spreadsheet format rather than as a word-processing document in order to facilitate searching, filtering, data retrieval, computational analysis, and AI-assisted exploration of the material.
The dataset is provided as a single spreadsheet workbook divided into three worksheets:
1. Manuscript Inventory
The principal dataset containing the edited version of the 1909-1910 Inventario Manoscritto. The worksheet includes the archaeological context of each object, standardized inventory numbers, standardized object descriptions, diplomatic transcriptions of the original Italian entries, English translations, object materials, prices, annotations, collective record identifiers, comparison with the current Museo Egizio collection database (SiME), and editorial commentary.
Main columns:
- Inventory heading
- Numero d'inventario / Inventory number
- Standardized object description
- Descrizione dell'oggetto
- Description of the object
- Natura
- Nature
- Prezzo/Price
- Annotazioni
- Annotations
- Collective Entry ID
- Present in SiME
- Multiple Objects in SiME
- Commentary
2. Collective Entries
A supplementary worksheet documenting information recorded collectively in the original manuscript for groups of objects. Collective entries include descriptions, materials, prices, and annotations linked to multiple inventory numbers through the Collective entries ID system.
Main columns:
- Collective Entry ID
- Collective object description (Italian)
- Collective nature (Italian)
- Collective price (Italian)
- Collective annotation (Italian)
- Inventory range
3. Codebook
A reference worksheet documenting abbreviations, symbols, and editorial conventions occurring in the Manuscript inventory and used throughout the dataset.
Main columns:
- Original Form
- Meaning (Italian)
- Meaning (English)
The Codebook facilitates interpretation of abbreviations and scribal conventions encountered in the original manuscript and supports consistent use of the dataset by both human researchers and computational systems.
