Faculty of Classics University of Oxford |
8. Centre for the Study of Ancient DocumentsIntroductionThe Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents was established in 1995 as a research unit within the Faculty of Literae Humaniores (Classics) to provide a focus for the study of ancient documents in Oxford. Its overall objective is to promote and develop teaching and research on ancient documents at the highest level. Over the last six years it has developed into a research centre of national and international importance. The Centre forms part of the University's new Classics Centre at 66, St. Giles. The Centre occupies a group of rooms on the first floor of the Classics Centre providing an archive and small seminar room and office space for the Assistant Director. The Centre has access to a uniquely rich range of primary documentary archives, including its Greek epigraphical squeeze collection; the Oxyrhynchus Papyri collection; and Romano-British writing tablets, principally the unique collection from Vindolanda, near Hadrian's Wall. The CSAD has taken a particular interest in the application of the latest information technology to research on and dissemination of documentary sources, aiming to make them available to a wide range of users, both local and remote, from classical scholars and researchers to those with a general interest in the written and material culture of the ancient Mediterranean world. The CSAD has a long-established web site (http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk). The Centre's internet server also hosts the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/POxy) and British Epigraphy Society (http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/BES) web sites. ResourcesThe Centre holds and manages a number of research archives on behalf of the Faculty of Classics. The principal collections are: an archive of some 20,000 paper squeezes of Greek inscriptions; a library of the original contact drawings made by R G Collingwood and R P Wright for Roman Inscriptions of Britain volume I; notebooks, papers and photographs from Sir Christopher Cox's Phrygian expeditions in 1925 and 1926 which formed the basis for Barbara Levick's and Stephen Mitchell's publication of volumes IX and X of Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua; W G Forrest's epigraphical papers, photographs and squeezes collected for his unfinished Corpus of the inscriptions of Chios; the epigraphical papers and photographs of D M Lewis and L H Jeffery; epigraphical and historical papers of H T Wade-Gery; transcriptions of the Persepolis Fortification Tablets. The Centre has a small epigraphical and papyrological library largely made up of books donated by Mrs M Forrest from the library of Professor W G Forrest (epigraphy) or deposited by Brasenose College library (papyrology). The Centre's research collections are accessible directly to visitors and local researchers. The Centre's archive and seminar room provides a study room with excellent natural light. From its establishment the Centre has also been concerned to make its research resources available electronically through its WWW site to the widest possible audience. A number of major projects directed to this end are under way, details of which are listed below.
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