Guides and databases: Archaeology: Databases

Key databases for Archaeology, Museums and Heritage Studies

There is no single database that supports all aspects of archaeological research. To find subject specific journal articles, conference proceedings, and more, you are advised to search across a range of options, general and specific. The following list contains core databases for Archaeology. You are also advised to consult the full list of databases and consult inter-disciplinary databases.

In addition to the general database listed here, use the links to explore more specialist resources:

AATA Online
Abstracts of literature related to the preservation and conservation of material cultural heritage, including works of art, material culture, and archaeological and architectural sites and materials.
Anthropology Plus
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to EBSCOhost. Including the indexing from Anthropological Literature and Anthropological Index Online, Anthropology Plus provides worldwide indexing of core and lesser known journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies. Coverage is from the late 19th century to the present.
Archaeology Data Service
The Archaeological Data Service is the only accredited digital repository for heritage data in the UK. It contains as wide range of digital resources for archaeology, which is predominantly British.
BCIN (Bibliographic Database of the Conservation Information Network)
A complete bibliographic resource for the conservation, preservation and restoration of cultural property. The BCIN contains nearly 200,000 citations, including the first 34 volumes of the Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts (AATA), published between 1955 and 1997
China Academic Journals, Series F: Literature, History and Philosophy
Provides access to articles published in approx 700 Chinese scholarly journals in the disciplines of literature, history, and philosophy. Users can switch to Chinese-language interfaces (both simplified and traditional) from within the database.
eHRAF Archaeology
An online cross-cultural database containing information on world’s prehistory organized by archaeological traditions. The documents are subject-indexed at the paragraph level
Historical Atlas of Islam
Featuring maps and articles covering the history and geography of Islam. Accessibility statement for Brill Reference Works.
New Pauly Online
Brills New Pauly is a reference work for students and scholars of the ancient world, together with the complete original Der Neue Pauly. Covers Graeco-Roman antiquity and its aftermath, including the history of classical scholarship. Accessibility statement for Brill Reference Works.

Key interdisciplinary databases

Humanities Index (BHI)
Previously called BHI: British Humanities Index. Index of published literature in the humanities, covering humanities journals and weekly magazines, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK and the United States.
JSTOR
Archive of important scholarly journals. Core resource. Accessibility statement for JSTOR.
Perse
Perse contains full back runs of French language social and human sciences journals. Subject areas covered include anthropology, law, politics, history, sociology and geography. Most titles remain 3-5 years behind the current date. All articles are in French.
Project Muse
Full text of journals, mainly in the humanities and social sciences, with some scientific and medical titles. Accessibility statement for Project Muse.
ProQuest Central
ProQuest Central is the largest multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. Over 160 subjects areas are covered including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more. Accessibility statement for ProQuest Central.
SCOPUS
See the LibrarySkills@UCL guide to Scopus. Multi-disciplinary database containing references to journal articles, conference proceedings, trade publications, book series and web resources. Please use IE 8 or higher, Google Chrome or Firefox browsers.

Image Databases

Arachne
Arachne is the central object database of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Cologne Digital Archaeology Laboratory (CoDArchLab) at the Archaeological Institute of the University of Cologne.
Art & Artifact Browser: Perseus
Perseus's open-access browser encompasses over 1,300 coins, 1,900 vases, 2000 sculptures, 179 sites, 140 gems, and more than 420 buildings.
Beazley Archive Pottery Database
The BAPD is the world's largest database of ancient Greek painted pottery (‘Greek vases’). It contains records of more than 130,000 ancient pots and 250,000 images.

Britannica Image Quest
Britannica Image Quest is an online image library which contains images from the worlds best providers including National Geographic, Getty Images, National History Museum and many more. This easy-to-use online portal provides quick access to rights-cleared high-quality images.
Historic England: Find Photos
Dating from the 1850s onwards, the Historic England archive holds over 9 million photographs of the historic environment
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae Image Database
Image database of the Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae
Manar al-Athar
This open access photo-archive provides high resolution, searchable images of archaeological sites, buildings and artworks covering the areas of the former Roman Empire which later came under Islamic rule. The chronological range is from Alexander the Great (i.e from about 300 BC) through the Islamic period.

Key databases for theses

DART-Europe E-theses Portal
Discovery service for full text, open access research theses awarded by European Universities
EThOS (e-theses online service)
Search over 400,000 doctoral theses from over 120 institutions. Users must register before use. Around 160,000 are available in full text, and of the remaining 240,000 records dating back to at least 1800, three quarters are available to be ordered for paid scanning.

Open access theses and dissertations
Over 3.5 million electronic theses and dissertations that are freely available online.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global
Includes millions of searchable citations to dissertation and theses from around the world from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full text dissertations that are available for download in PDF. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works.

Key databases for research methods

SAGE Research Methods
Combining content from Sage books, journals, case studies, datasets and references works to help users explore methods concepts when designing research projects, conduct research, and write up findings. Access to all areas including Datasets and Doing Research Online. Some video contents is available - refine by 'Available to me'. Foundations content is now included. Accessibility statement for SAGE Research Methods.

Library Databases

Library databases A-Z
Browse or search our databases by title, or use the Subject drop down box at the top to narrow down to databases in your subject area.

What is a database?

Guide to searching databases

Newspapers

The Library provides online access to many historic and current newspapers from around the world. You can access them by:

Searching by individual title in Explore.
Searching across collections using Newspaper collection databases.

Newspaper collections at UCL
Details on the many online newspapers to which UCL subscribes, and how UCL staff and students can find and access them.