Databases contain large amounts of data including (but not limited to) statistics, bibliographic information, images and abstracts.
Bibliographic databases are a useful tool for finding scholarly literature in your subject area. This includes (but is not limited to) journal articles, conference proceedings and books. They are very useful to consult when carrying out your own research because:
Bibliographic databases are helpful when you want to start exploring beyond your reading list or are researching a new topic.
On this page you will find recommended databases and guidance on how to search for and access databases.
Database:
A collection of structured and organised data that is stored, searched and accessed electronically.
Bibliographic database:
A searchable platform that contains descriptive records of articles, books, conference proceedings, audio-visual material, maps, newspapers, and more.
Abstracting service:
Used to refer to a bibliographic database, the service provides abstracts of publications.
Indexing service:
Used to refer to a bibliographic database, the service provides descriptors to help organise and navigate publications.
Full-text:
This means you can read the item in full from beginning to end, not just the abstract or summary.
Oxford subscribes to lots of databases you can use for free. You will likely find you need to use several databases for a thorough search of your subject area. The tabs at the top of this section take you to key databases for Egyptology and a link to browse all databases in Egyptology.
You can also search for specific databases via SOLO. Note, some key texts may be available via a database but not individually listed on SOLO.
Help with databases
For those seeking advice on accessing databases, we recommend the following guides:
To browse a list of databases for Egyptology, follow the link below which takes you through to Databases A-Z.
Below are key bibliographic databases applicable to those studying Egyptology at Oxford.
Access
Depending on the database provider, you may need to use your Oxford Single Sign On to access materials.
Aims to gather all bibliographical references relating to the temples of Karnak.
The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, (also known as "Porter & Moss" or "TopBib") is an essential and comprehensive reference resource for Egyptologists, presenting and analysing both published and unpublished information about ancient Egyptian monuments.
Originally published as the Bibliography of the Prehistory and the Early Dynastic period of Egypt and northern Sudan with annual updates since 1995 in the journal Archéo-Nil.
Online Egyptological Bibliography
The OEB is available through SOLO and holds the largest available collection of references for Egyptological literature.
Below are key databases applicable to those studying Egyptology at Oxford that provide resources beyond purely bibliographic data.
Access
Depending on the database provider, you may need to use your Oxford Single Sign On to access materials.
Union collection of image collections worldwide. Approaching 1,000,000 images covering all periods, all geographic areas and all types of art, architecture and archaeology as well as other subject areas in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Hisitory of Medicine and Science. Contributing collections include libraries, museums and archives.
300,000+ images of objects from museums, galleries and private collections, as well as buildings and monuments. Images cover visual culture worldwide, from pre-History to the present day. Covering all periods and all geographic areas, it addresses the interests of such disciplines as art, architecture, archaeology, anthropology, & ethnography, history, science & medicine.
The current database assembles all available Early Dynastic inscriptions, covering the first attestations of writing discovered in tomb U-j (Naqada IIIA1, ca. 3250 BC) until the earliest known continuous written text in the reign of Djoser (ca. 2700 BC).
This database contains c. 3,000 administrative inscriptions and documents, literary and liturgical manuscripts, private correspondence, epitaphs and tombstones and graffiti etc.
The Deir el-Medina Database is meant to be an intermediate presentation of the ongoing research project A Survey of the New Kingdom Non-literary Texts from Deir el-Medina of Leiden University.
This reference tool for Demotic palaeography incorporates all text types, and each item is accompanied by a transliteration, translation and secondary literature. The database enables the identification of individual scribes and the analysis of the development of the Demotic script and language over the 1,200 years.
The Bildarchiv Foto Marburg is the German Centre for Documentation of Art History. Containing over 1.7 million images, the Archive includes images relating to Egypt and the Ancient Near East.
The database contains 8,000 images taken by Siegfried Schott in Egypt during the 1920s and 1930s in Egypt.
The database is intended to serve as a resource for the study of magical, alchemical, astrological and other ritual and related texts from the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world. At present the focus is on magical texts written in Coptic, Greek, and Demotic from Egypt.
The MEKETREpository is an extensive database of Middle Kingdom tombs of officials, especially those at Beni Hassan.
Our private collection of over 15,000 pictures of most sites in Egypt is at your disposal, free of charge. You are welcome to use them in your publications, provided the source is acknowledged.
The data presented in this platform are the outcome of a research project entitled “Nubian textiles: craft, trade, costume and identity in the medieval kingdom of Makuria”, conducted at the Institute of Oriental and Mediterranean Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences from 2016 to 2018.
AI is a search engine that groups on a single platform photographic reproductions of works of art (HD & free of rights), accompanied by the information necessary for their contextualization and retrieval.
The website gives access to a sampling of images from the photographic archives of The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures in Chicago, capturing the Institute's archaeological work in the Near East, Egypt and the Sudan from 1892 to the present.
A prosopography database for the Middle Kingdom based at Mainz University.
Ramses Online is an interface which gives access to part of the data and functionalities of the Corpus annoté des textes néo-égyptiens, also known as Projet Ramsès which is based at Liège University.
Système d'Indexation des Textes Héroglyphiques aims at a systematic publication of the texts of the Karnak Temple in the form of a database.
If the Bodleian Libraries don't have a database you are looking for, you can make a recommendation by completing the form below (Oxford Single-Sign On required).