Online Egyptology resource reaches 100,000 items

An online bibliography designed to comprehensively document the study of ancient Egypt has just passed 100,000 items.

The Online Egyptological Bibliography (OEB) was started in Oxford in January 2009 as the successor to the Annual Egyptological Bibliography.

Based in the Griffith Institute within the Faculty of Oriental Studies, the project brings together almost two centuries' worth of academic publications in Egyptology from across the globe.

John Baines, Professor of Egyptology at Oxford University, explained: 'The bibliography began in Holland in 1947 as an international undertaking. We took over at the beginning of 2009 after it became clear the project could no longer be supported in Holland.'

The move was made possible by a grant from the John Fell Fund, with a further grant of more than $600,000 from the Mellon Foundation allowing the project to incorporate the Germany-based Aigyptos database.

'When we took it on, the bibliography consisted of about 43,000 items and had only gone online in full form about 18 months before,' said Professor Baines. 'We then added a second bibliography of material published from 1822. That is a symbolic and important date in Egyptology because it is the year hieroglyphs were deciphered.'

With around two thirds of the Aigyptos database integrated into the OEB, the total number of items now stands at over 100,000. The bibliography updates daily and already has more than 250 entries for 2013.

Professor Baines added: 'The OEB covers all aspects of Egyptology, from linguistics to scientific archaeology. I don't know any other subject that is covered so fully. All academic publications in Egyptology in any language are added, and it's not limited to the main periodicals.

'The big change we made when we took on the project was to take the bibliography entirely online, which means it is much more convenient and can be edited from anywhere in the world. It used to take three or four years for an item to be added – now it happens instantly.'

The OEB is a joint project with the universities of Munich and Heidelberg, under the umbrella of the International Association of Egyptologists. It complements the Griffith Institute's previously-existing Topological Bibliography, which gathers together items published about specific locations or objects.

Image, courtesy of the Griffith Institute, shows a scene from the Middle Kingdom tomb of Bakt III at Beni Hasan, Egypt, painted by Percy Brown.