Primary Sources - ARTH 733 - Uncovering Ancient Greece - Research Guides at Savannah College of Art and Design

What are Primary Sources?

Primary sources include original texts, maps, documents, objects, etc. They are the original source of information, as opposed to a later work that builds on it, such as an analysis, report or description. Look for leads in the research literature. For example, if an article/book cites a primary work, see if you can track this down.

This page provides a few primary sources that may be useful.

Recommended Databases

JSTOR
Database containing full-text articles from scholarly journals and images from institutions around the world covering a variety of subjects.
JSTOR includes digitized articles from back issues of academic journals as well as book chapters, ebooks, abstracts, and primary sources from the humanities and social sciences. For help using JSTOR, search SCAD Libraries' FAQ, or use the chat feature to contact library staff.
Google Arts & Culture
Media library containing interactive images and video of artworks, cultural sites, and artifacts from around the world.
Google Arts & Culture collects high-quality media from partner museums and archives around the world, including artworks, interpretive videos, and 360-degree experiences of cultural sites. This database features content from over 2,000 leading institutions who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's museums, archives, and cultural sites to a single virtual home.
Internet Archive
Website hosting archived webpages, digitized books, and other media available for download.
The Internet Archives includes the Wayback Machine, which archives past versions of websites, as well as millions of books, texts, audio recordings, live concerts, videos, images, and software programs.

Recommended Websites

Uffizi Digitization Project
Digitization of the complete collection of Greek and Roman sculpture in the Uffizi, Pitti Palace, and Boboli Gardens on behalf of the Gallerie degli Uffizi. This is the third largest collection of its kind in an Italian state museum. Largely assembled by the Medici from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the statues include works of exceptional interest to students of Greek and Roman art, notably the Medici Venus, the Medici Faun, the Niobids, and the Ariadne.
American School of Classical Studies at Athens
The digitized material includes Joannes Gennadius’s scrapbooks, which contain photographs and documents that provide invaluable resources on the long diplomatic career and scholarly preoccupations of the founder of the Gennadius Library.
Classical Art Research Centre
The Beazley Archive contains the world's biggest photographic archive devoted to ancient Greek figure-decorated pottery. This Archive, and the online Beazley Archive Pottery Database (BAPD) remain at the heart of CARC's activities.
Harvard University, Center for Hellenic Studies
The CHS is dedicated to the reassertion of the humanism of the ancient world, centering on Hellenic civilization in its widest sense. Today, it stands as a premier research facility, cultivating a repository of materials that attracts scholars, researchers, and students from all over the world.
Tufts University, Perseus Digital Library
Our flagship collection, under development since 1987, covers the history, literature and culture of the Greco-Roman world. We are applying what we have learned from Classics to other subjects within the humanities and beyond.
Fordham University, Internet Ancient History Sourcebook
A collection of public domain and copy-permitted historical texts presented cleanly (without advertising or excessive layout) for educational use. Primary sources are available here mainly for use in high-school and university/college courses. From the outset the site took a very broad view of the sources that should be available to students and as well as documents long associated with a "western civilization" approach to history also provides much information on Byzantine, Islamic, Jewish, Indian, East Asian, and African history. You will also find many documents especially relevant to women's history and LGBT studies.