Research Guides: ARCH 101: Introduction to Egyptian and Near Eastern Archaeology: Finding Background Information

Encyclopedias

Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East
- This link opens in a new window
This comprehensive work analyzes the archaeological and linguistic data that pertain to the broad cultural milieu of the ancient Near East, the crossroads of three of the world's most influential religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Ranging from prehistoric times up to the early centuries of the rise of Islam, the work covers the civilizations of Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran, Arabia, Cyprus, Egypt, and the coastal regions of North and East Africa.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Featuring original articles covering the social, political, religious, cultural and artistic legacy of this 5,000-year civilization from the predynastic era to its eclipse in the seventh century CE. Covers art, architecture, religion, language, literature, trade, politics, everyday social life and the culture of the court.
Encyclopedia of Ancient History
- This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive collection of twenty-first century scholarship available on the entire ancient Mediterranean world. The board of internationally diverse editors has collected over 5,000 original entries spanning the late Bronze Age through the seventh century CE. Entries extend to all Mediterranean civilizations, including the Near East and Egypt.
Cambridge Histories Online
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Searchable collection of e-books; useful starting point for exploring topics in history

Finding Bibliography

Archive of Mesopotamian Archaeological Site Reports (AMAR)
Full text of hundreds of published site reports; ability to do full-text searches. We also have most of these in print form in Carpenter. There are no records for the titles in this database in Tripod.
ABZU
A refereed collection of websites, e-books, articles.
Catalog of the Oriental Institute Library, University of Chicago
For the library, choose Search Research Archives. Searchable index to the books and journals in the OI Library, including titles of journal articles and chapters in collected studies. Since 1990. No connection to Tripod, so you'll have to search for journal titles or book titles in Tripod.
Hittite Bibliography
Keyword searching within article and book titles possible. A lot of the results here can be found through Periodicals Index Online, Zenon, and the Oriental Institute catalogues, but this is a very complete bibliography on all things Hittite. Search Tripod to see if we have the books or journals.
Catalogue of the German Archaeological Institute (ZENON new version)
Zenon, the catalogue of the Deutsches Archaologisches Institut. Much of the same information as DYABOLA below, only through a free interface.

Included in this catalog are not only books held by the DAI libraries, but a full index to the journals and collected volumes. There is good coverage of Greek and Turkish archaeology. You can search for Greek titles in Greek.

Bibliotheca Orientalis
- This link opens in a new window
Contains reviews and bibliographical data on books published on the ancient and modern Near East.
Oxford Art Online
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Oxford Art Online is an art reference library that searches Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms, and The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. This resource contains images, biographies, subject entries, and thematic timelines (antiquity to present).
ATLA Religion Database + ATLA Serials (American Theological Library Association)
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to the entire core collection of more than fifty significant scholarly journals in the field of religion. Also provides citation information for journal articles, book reviews and essays for over 600 journals in the fields of religion and theology. Covers 1949-present.