LibGuides: ARTH 1413: The Art and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt: Get Started

Finding Primary Publications

While you may not be able to visit many of the sites and monuments discussed in this class, you can read and reference the "primary publication" that fully documents the site/monument. These are often included in "site reports" or a "final" publication of a site. Smaller objects (such as scupltures) may be documented in a journal article as its "primary publication."

Here is a beginning strategy to determine the primary publication for your subject. PLEASE...keep notes of articles or books that you use to locate the primary publication, as these may be useful in your preliminary bibliography of specialized literature.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
Start here! Search this database and find entries that are focused on or related to your topic. Use the bibliographical ciations to make note of specific texts that deal with your topic. Compare multiple articles to see if the same source is repeated in different bibliographies.

Predynastic era-7th century C.E.
OEB: Online Egyptological Bibliography
Next, search the OEB. The results for your search will be ordered from newest to oldest publication. Change this order from oldest to newest and begin examining each of the oldest citations on your topic. Some of the titles may be in a foreign language. You can translate these using an online translator or use context clues to determine the scope and breadth of the text.

1822-present
JSTOR
Search here next. JSTOR includes the full-text for the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology and other relevant titles. Compare the bibliographies of several texts available in JSTOR, and note the repetition of early publications on your subject.

varies;Most articles are older than the past 3-5 years.

Library Catalog
After locating possible options in the sources listed above, attempt to locate potential primary publications using the library catalog. While the collection does not contain every primary publication on ancient Egyptian archaeology, many of these are available (in the Stacks, on Reserve, or in Special Collections).

WorldCat (TexShare)
If the primary publication on your topic is not available in our library, use this database to locate the text from another library. Once you find the title, click on it and look for the "Send Request to Illiad" link. This will allow you to place a request to borrow the item from another library.

varies

Borrowing Items from Another Library

ILLIAD
Use ILLIAD to borrow books, articles, and media from other libraries. Remember to allow a little more time to receive items that must be sent by mail.