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Home  »   Subjects and Libraries  »  Subjects  »  Archaeology

Contact | Collection overview | Libraries & reading rooms | Important e-resources

Contact

Dr Graham Piddock
tel: +44 (0)1865 278091 (Sackler Library)
email: graham.piddock@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Collection overview

The premier research library for the study of archaeology in Oxford University is the Sackler Library, which incorporates the constituent departmental libraries of the Ashmolean Museum and strongly reflects the collection strengths of the Museum. Beyond the sphere of Europe and Asia the Balfour Library supports the archaeological collections in the Pitt Rivers Museum. The Bodleian Library is an important additional resource, especially for later (historical) periods.

Collection policy for Archaeology

Libraries and reading rooms

Principal collections

The Sackler Library is home to the main research collections in Old World Archaeology as well as Art History and Numismatics. The principal areas of coverage are the ancient Near East including Egypt (the Griffith Institute Library); Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean from the Neolithic to the medieval period (with a strong focus on the classical world); the Islamic world, India and the Far East (the Eastern Art Library). There are also books on the theory and practice of archaeology and a strong emphasis on ancient art and technology with many museum catalogues.

The majority of books in the Sackler Library are on open shelves. Many of the books and periodicals in the collection may be borrowed, although major reference works and all Eastern Art Library books are confined to the library.

The Bodleian Library has, by virtue of its copyright library status, accumulated a comprehensive collection of books in the field of British topography and archaeology. There are also numerous works on medieval archaeology supporting the medieval history collections. Most of this material is not located on open access. For more information see Upper Camera Reading Room.

Associated collections

The Balfour Library, which is housed in the Pitt Rivers Museum (access via Robinson Close during museum building works), holds the University’s research collections on the archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and Australasia. They are held together with the collections on the ethnography of these areas. The Balfour Library also holds works on the Palaeolithic period worldwide and on the theory and methods of archaeology.

Important e-resources

Both the Bodleian Library and Sackler Library have facilities for readers to access online and CD-ROM databases through OxLIP+ which is also available on any computer on the University network.

A useful starting point for archaeology-related resources is the relevant web page Intute: Arts and Humanities.

Oxford University e-Journals, Oxford's electronic journal management system, provides access to the archaeology periodicals to which the University has online subscriptions.