The term ancient documents covers a wide range of materials which were used for the preservation of texts, such as:

•         stone

•         potsherds (ostraca)

•         papyrus

•         leather

•         bone

•         wood

•         paper.

The curation of such documents involves storing them in an appropriate manner and making their content available to scholars and the public. Traditionally this type of documentation has been achieved through the publication of the texts in the form of articles or books and through the display of individual objects in exhibitions. 

Computers are changing the way we curate. Databases and online platforms upon which the study of these documents is dependent have been pioneered in Heidelberg. This site has been created in order to provide a central landing point for those interested in finding and following the developments within the study of Papyrology and beyond.

For further information see here.

Links:

HGV, a database of information concerning published papyri and ostraca

papyri.info, an editing and search platform for documentary texts

Bulletin of Online Emendations to Papyri (BOEP) records digitally born corrections to papyri.info

PapPal, a palaeographical resource

Digital Corpus of Literary Papyri, an editing and search platform for literary texts

Catalogue of objects in the Heidelberg Papyrussammlung database of all holdings in the collection