2021 CACHE Postdoctoral Research Fellow Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo
CACHE welcomes Dr Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo as one of our 2021 Postdoctoral Research Fellows. Carlo is Adjunct Research Associate in the Centre for Ancient Cultures at Monash University and member of the Dakhleh Oasis Project carrying out archaeological work in Egypt’s Western Desert.
His fellowship project will involve a multidisciplinary investigation of a Graeco-Roman period Egyptian cartonnage mummy mask held in the Macquarie University History Museum. Through iconographical study, photogrammetry, archaeometric analysis, and provenance research, Carlo aims to provide new perspectives on the artefact’s life – from manufacture to museum collection. Painted masks made of moulded plaster and linen placed over the head of the mummified individual were a common part of the Egyptian funerary equipment and can be found in museum collections globally. Identifying micro-details from the composition and decoration of the mask fragment may allow it to be linked to a particular workshop or site of origin and thus provide greater understanding of how the object came to Australia.
This project will form a case study in Carlo’s wider research into Graeco-Roman period material culture and issues of cultural heritage in museum collections. Carlo completed his Master’s thesis on Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figures in the Egyptian Museum of Florence at the Department of Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Università di Pisa and received his PhD through Monash University in 2019 with a dissertation on cartonnage material from the site of Ismant al-Kharab in the Dakhleh Oasis. Thanks to the use of technology, the project won the Monash University Data Fluency Digital Toolkit Poster Competition for showcasing the 3D tools, digital strategy, and data analysis. Following his doctoral research, with a survey and comparison of archaeological data, he investigated looting activities in the oases of the Egyptian Western Desert. Through his work with the Dakhleh Oasis Project, Carlo has developed a methodology to physically and digitally reconstruct cartonnage fragments and identify common traits, and this will be further tested through his CACHE fellowship project.
From 2019–2020, Carlo was also Lead Curator for the Circulating Artefacts Project at the British Museum. This initiative aimed to assist in the fight against the illicit antiquities market by working with heritage professionals, scholars, and authorities to identify potentially trafficked objects and repatriate them where possible.
In 2022, Carlo will commence a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Global Fellowship to continue his research into Graeco-Roman cartonnage from Egypt and the recontextualisation of cultural heritage. In partnership with the Institute of Heritage Science (CNR-ISPC) in Catania and UC Berkeley (NES/Bancroft), he will launch a wide-scale investigation into cartonnage artefacts (mummy masks, foot-cases, full body covers) held in collections across the world, developing greater knowledge of style and manufacture details that will assist in tracing unprovenanced and possibly stolen material.
We look forward to working with Carlo in his efforts to preserve Egypt’s heritage. For more information about his recent publications, papers, and projects, visit his LinkedIn and Monash University profiles and engage with him on Twitter.
Top: Dr Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo documenting a cartonnage mummy mask. Middle: Detail view of a mummy mask found at Dakhleh Oasis. Bottom: Dr Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo delivering the ICOM Palmyra Talk on the British Museum Circulating Artefacts Project at the International Council of Museums General Conference in Kyoto, 2019.