Ancient Near East

Web Resources

Open-Access Texts

  • AWOL (Ancient World Online) Directory to open-access historical texts on the Ancient World: includes late antiquity, Byzantium, early Church history, Syriac and Coptic studies, history of medicine.
  • A-Z Open Access journals on Ancient Studies
  • Cuneiform Digital Library Database hosted by UCLA, bringing together over 250,000 digitized texts of cuneiform writings from various museums and institutions in Europe and America, dating from 3500 BC to the end of the pre-Christian era
  • ETANA (Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives) Database of digitized out-of-copyright texts plus some open-access resources on ancient Near Eastern studies. Currently contains over 350 titles.  Option to create personal user account
  • Internet Sacred Text Archive: Ancient Near East Open access material on sacred texts, and translations of the texts themselves, including versions of Gilgamesh and The Descent of the Goddess Ishtar into the Lower World
  • Melammu Project: digital library (University of Helsinki) Resource on the diffusion of Mesopotamian culture from ancient times to the rise of the Islamic empire comprising open-access works (mainly articles and chapters) plus online dictionaries, a bibliography and a key-word searchable database
  • Oriental Institute (Chicago) : open-access publications Link to open-access back catalogue titles from OIC. Includes the Assyrian and Hittite dictionaries and a range of monographs, bulletins and archaeological reports
    (via AWOL )
  • Propylaeum-DOK (Digital Repository: Ancient Near Eastern Studies)
    Hosted by the University of Heidelburg, Propylaeum - DOK aims to provide a platform for the publishing, indexing and long-preservation of documents in the field of classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies. It offers members of the academic community worldwide the opportunity to publish their texts (monographs, articles, lectures) under terms of Open Access in electronic format on the Internet. Articles and chapters from prominent journals and published books can be viewed and downloaded. Content is fully searchable. As well as ANE studies (over 400 entries), there is also a small collection in Byzantine Studies .
  • Ugaritica
    From the AMAR: Archive of Mesopotamian Archaeological Site Reports via AWOL - Volumes 1-7 of the Ugaritica monograph series detailing excavations and research on Ugarit, the Hurrians, Akkadian, cuneiform inscriptions and the Ras Shamra excavations, among other topics

Organisations and other Libraries

  • British Association for Near Eastern Archaeology (BANEA) Aims to bring together professionals and non-professionals with an interest in the archaeology, languages and history of the ancient Near East
  • British Museum Showcases the world’s cultural and artistic heritage from pre-history to artefacts of the 21 st century. View detailed bibliographic records and photographs of thousands of items from the collection
  • London Centre for the Ancient Near East Based at SOAS, with the aim to establish London as a centre for the study of ancient near eastern civilizations and to establish a network of academic interest in the region