3D Models, VR Models, and Panographies
- ElephantineIncludes a network link to a collection of data about the island of Elephantine (maps, images, panoramas, literature references, 3D models...) Most of the objects have time tags.
Archives and Image Repositories
Use these sites to locate images of, and metadata for, art, artifacts and monuments from the ancient Near East and Egypt. Some resources are freely available, others are subscription services, so remote access may be necessary when accessing from off-campus.
ARTstor guides are available for subjects such as Classical Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, and Religious Studies.
- American Egyptomania "This website is devoted to exploring American fascination with Egypt and its history. Primary Source documents can be found by browsing the Historical Sources page or by searching through the advanced search page. Secondary literature that addresses topics such as art & architecture, history, literature, religion, and science can be browsed through the scholarship page..."
- Ancient Pottery Database, Foundation for Archaeological Research in the Land of Israel "Here you will find an ever growing database of ancient pottery assemblages, divided into geographical regions and periods of use, subdivided into type categories including all the valuable information we can provide such as parallel finds, special features, measurements and bibliographic references...The main focus of this site will be on the pottery of the Southern Levant..."
- Art Project "Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces..."
- Census of Antique Works for Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance "The Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance is an interdisciplinary research database containing documentation centering on the classical tradition, a focus of Renaissance studies. Registered are the antique monuments known in the Renaissance together with the related Renaissance documents in the form of texts and images, and related information about locations, persons and periods as well as bibliographic data. The Census is a useful tool of research, not only in the field of art history and archaeology, but also for any discipline focussing on the Nachleben of the Antique..."
- Collections of the Palestine Exploration Fund The PEF houses unique and diverse collections of artefacts, natural history specimens, documents, maps, paintings, drawings, and photographs from our numerous expeditions and excavations in the Levant in the 19th and 20th centuries...
- Digital Antiquity Digital Antiquity is a collaborative organization devoted to enhancing preservation and access to digital records of archaeological investigations...
- Egyptological Looting Database 2011. "This site was set up on 31st January 2011 to record known (or strongly suspected) details of sites looted during the popular Egyptian uprising of January and February 2011..."
- Europeana "Paintings, music, films and books from Europe's galleries, libraries, archives and museums..."
- Griffith Institute Archive The Griffith Institute is a part of The University of Oxford and specializes in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern studies. The Griffith Institute Archive holds extensive Egyptological and related records (manuscripts, photographs, watercolors, etc.) and is actively cataloging, digitizing and posting its holdings online. The Archive is also open for research and for prearranged tours.
- Gertrude Bell Archive "...the books and papers of Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) were given to Newcastle University Library by Gertrude's half-sister, Lady Richmond, although part of the Doughty-Wylie correspondence came from St. Anthony's College, Oxford. They are under the care of the Special Collections department, which can be contacted at: lib-specenq@ncl.ac.uk."
- Karnak Cachette Database Project For these reasons, a database project on the Karnak Cachette was launched at the IFAO in 2006. The aims of this project were: to create a scientific database, including all the objects which come from the Karnak Cachette; to set up photographic documentation concerning the Karnak Cachette, by numbering archives in the current collections and taking additional photographs; to describe each object and give the museographical, epigraphical, prosopographical data and complete bibliography in relation to it; and to make the database available on the web...
- Morgan Library & Museum: Ancient Near Eastern Seals and Tablets "Pierpont Morgan collected nearly three thousand cuneiform tablets, the bulk of which are now in the Yale Babylonian Collection, which he founded. The Morgan's collection also includes cuneiform tablets and a few outstanding art objects from the ancient Near East..."
- National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archive, Smithsonian Institution "The National Anthropological Archives and Human Studies Film Archives collect and preserve historical and contemporary anthropological materials that document the world's cultures and the history of anthropology. Their collections represent the four fields of anthropology – ethnology, linguistics, archaeology, and physical anthropology – and include fieldnotes, journals, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, maps, sound recordings, film and video created by Smithsonian anthropologists and other preeminent scholars..."
- Projekt-Giza Digitized archives, plans, photos, etc. from the excavations of Georg Steindorff, Hermann Junker and Wilhelm Pelizaeus (ongoing).
- Wikimedia CommonsPublic domain and freely-licensed images, sound, and video. Note the ability to browse by classification (topics, locations, media type, and more!) in addition to keyword searching.
Maps and GIS
In addition to the resources listed here, please see the UCLA Library Guide for Cartographic Resources
- Alexandria Digital Library The Alexandria Digital Library (ADL) is a distributed digital library with collections of georeferenced materials. ADL includes the operational library, with various nodes and collections, and the research program through which digital library architectures, gazetteer applications, educational applications, and software components are modeled, prototyped, and evaluated.
- David Rumsey Historical Map Collection18,460 maps online. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.
- MEGA Jordan "MEGA-Jordan is a purpose-built geographic information system (GIS) to inventory and manage archaeology sites at a national level..."
- Middle East Protests: An animated map "This map depicts the tides of protests and government retaliations day by day, beginning in Tunisia and ending with the unresolved conflict in Libya..."
- Pleiades "Pleiades gives scholars, students, and enthusiasts worldwide the ability to use, create, and share historical geographic information about the Greek and Roman World in digital form..."
- Spatial Humanities "This website...was released in 2011 to serve as a community-driven resource for the spatial humanities..."
- World Atlas of Language Structures WALS consists of 141 maps with accompanying texts on diverse features (such as vowel inventory size, noun-genitive order, passive constructions, and "hand"/"arm" polysemy), each of which is the responsibility of a single author (or team of authors). Each map shows between 120 and 1370 languages, each language being represented by a symbol, and different symbols showing different values of the feature...
Film Resources
- Egypt Exploration Society (EES) YouTube ChannelIncludes excerpts from the 'film record' of excavations at Tell el-Amarna from the Lucy Gura Archive and oral histories.
- Human Studies Film Archives (HSFA) YouTube ChannelSilent films from the 1920s featuring the Giza Pyramids, the tomb of Nefertari, and other sites. More information on HSFA photographs, manuscripts and recordings available at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/index.htm.
Object Catalogs and Databases
These catalogs and databases present archaeological and museum assets relating to the ancient Near East and Egypt.
- Arachne - Object database of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne "Arachne is intended to provide archaeologists and Classicists with a free internet research tool for quickly searching hundreds of thousands of records on objects and their attributes..."
- Archaeobotanical Database "The archaeobotanical database is part of a research project that investigates the development of prehistoric wild plant floras of the Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean..."
- ARK Archaeological Recording Kit "ARK the Archaeological Recording Kit is an opensource, standards compliant, web-delivered system for the creation, storage, manipulation and publication of archaeological data and media..."
- British Museum Collection Database Currently includes objects from Africa; the Americas; central, east, south and southeast Asia; ancient Egypt and Sudan; Europe; ancient Greece and Rome; the Middle East; Oceania; prehistory; the Museum’s collection of two-dimensional art.
- Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire (electronic) The following list of online resources for the CG has been compiled by Michael Tilgner and Ingeborg Waanders. The source is the Internet Archive, unless indicated otherwise.
- DBAS DataBases about Aegean Subjects "The DBAS project, the acronym of “Data Bases about Aegean Subjects”, starts in 2005 as a complex research tool for the study of specific themes, regarding the Aegean and the East Mediterranean areas in the pre-classical period, from the idea that a complete statistical analysis of the data of interest could be highly beneficial. Promoted by the University of Florence, this project has contributions by historians, philologists, archaeologists and computer scientists, both from the University of Florence and other Institutions. DBAS is a new kind of on-line consultation tool, a scientific portal organized in three main sections: Data bases for advanced research on specific topics, Bibliographic data bases, Tools and other implements for general research and for educational purposes."
- DAAHL Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land The Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Holy Land (DAAHL) is an international project that brings together experts in information technology including Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the archaeology of the Holy Land (modern Israel, Palestine, Jordan, southern Lebanon, Syria and the Sinai Peninsula) to create the first on-line digital atlas of the region held sacred to the three great monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
- Egyptological Looting Database 2011. "This site was set up on 31st January 2011 to record known (or strongly suspected) details of sites looted during the popular Egyptian uprising of January and February 2011..."
- Joconde CATALOGUE DES COLLECTIONS DES MUSEES DE FRANCE - Archéologie, beaux-arts, arts décoratifs, ethnologie, histoire, sciences et techniques
- Karnak Cachette Database Project For these reasons, a database project on the Karnak Cachette was launched at the IFAO in 2006. The aims of this project were: to create a scientific database, including all the objects which come from the Karnak Cachette; to set up photographic documentation concerning the Karnak Cachette, by numbering archives in the current collections and taking additional photographs; to describe each object and give the museographical, epigraphical, prosopographical data and complete bibliography in relation to it; and to make the database available on the web...
- Morgan Library & Museum: Ancient Near Eastern Seals and Tablets "Pierpont Morgan collected nearly three thousand cuneiform tablets, the bulk of which are now in the Yale Babylonian Collection, which he founded. The Morgan's collection also includes cuneiform tablets and a few outstanding art objects from the ancient Near East..."
- Musée du Louvre Atlas database Atlas allows the direct online consultation of 35,000 works of art exhibited in the Louvre. Online visitors can access the basic information displayed on labels accompanying works in the museum, together with authoritative commentary and analysis by the curators and staff...
- Smithsonian Institution Collections Search Center Search over 2 million records with 265,900 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives, and libraries.
- Yale Cross Collection Discovery (CCD) "Powered by Yale's Office of Digital Assets and Infrastructure, Cross Collection Discovery (CCD) provides a way to search across Yale's collections of art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video documenting people, places, and events that form part of Yale's institutional identity and contribution to scholarship..."