Project Description

Since November 2010, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has supported the project for the digitization of the papyri and ostraka from the Berlin Papyrus Collection as well as the preparation of an online image-database. The goal of this project is to make available online digital images and all relevant information for 6000 texts written in Greek and Latin.

The originals are scanned in high resolution on an overhead scanner and are accessible through the online database together with information on content, date, origin and acquisition history of the artifacts. Through links with other specialized databases, there are plans to feature on the website the original texts together with facing translation.

The online database will provide all scholars of the ancient world and those interested in ancient Egypt with a rich variety of high-quality images of the original objects for viewing and study, and it will also offer a deeper look into life in Greco-Roman Egypt.

In the preparations for this project we have received effective support from a great number of colleagues and partner projects. Special thanks go to Prof. D. Hagedorn and Dr. J. Cowey for providing the metadata from the Heidelberger Gesamtverzeichnis der griechischen Papyrusurkunden Ägyptens (HGV), as well as to Prof. W. Clarysse and Prof. M. Depauw, who have given us the metadata from the Leuven Database of Ancient Books (LDAB) for further use with the Berlin texts.