Griffith Institute
You are here: Home : Partner Pages : South East England : Griffith Institute
The Griffith Institute
Sackler Library,
1, St John Street,
Oxford
OX1 2LG
United Kingdom
Telephone +44-(0)1865-278099
Fax +44-(0)1865-278100
E-mail griffith.institute@orinst.ox.ac.uk
Web pages http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk
HISTORY
The Griffith Institute is a part of the University of Oxford and is situated in the new Sackler Library in St John Street in Oxford, close to the Ashmolean Museum. It was created as the result of a bequest by F. Ll. Griffith (1862-1934), the first Professor of Egyptology at Oxford, in 1937 in order to provide 'a permanent home ... for the study of the ancient languages and antiquities of the Near East'. Its original, now demolished, building was opened in 1939 (http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/1.html). The Institute moved into its new home in the Sackler Library in 2001.
STAFF
The Griffith Institute currently employs a specialist Editor of the Topographical Bibliography and Keeper of the Archive and two full-time Assistants to the Editor of the Topographical Bibliography and Keeper of the Archive. The Griffith Institute also employs a part-time Assistant and part-time Scanner Operator (both until the end of July 2007) and a part time secretary (until the end of March 2007).
THE TOPOGRAPHICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Griffith Institute publishes the Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings. This is a reference work, created by Bertha Porter and Rosalind Moss (the work is often referred to as 'Porter-Moss') in the 1920s. It lists ancient Egyptian monuments still in situ, those found in controlled excavations or those for which the original location can 
be established with certainty, and now also monuments of unknown provenance. It has become one of the indispensable tools of Egyptologists working with monuments and is used all over the world. The Bibliography now has eight published volumes (some of them in a second edition and in several parts), and work is ongoing to prepare another section for publication in 2007. The published parts of Volume 8 (Objects of Provenance Not Known: Statues) as well as the working files of the next two parts (Stelae and Reliefs and Paintings) are now available in updated versions on the web pages (http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/3.html).
THE ARCHIVE
The Griffith Institute has the largest specialized Egyptological archive in the world (http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/4.html). The material in the archive includes manuscripts, photographs, drawings, sketches, watercolours, papers, correspondence, notebooks, indexes, plans of Egyptian monuments, and more. A list of the Archive's holdings, the most recent accessions and other information can be found on the Institute's web pages. The Archive can be consulted by academic visitors under certain terms and conditions. Severe staff shortage has made it necessary to keep the Archive closed on certain days, and visitors are advised to consult the web pages for information. It is essential to arrange visits in advance by contacting the Griffith Institute. Digital copies of material are available on request. Periodically, members of the public are also allowed access to the Archive.
CURRENT ARCHIVE PROJECTS
Howard Carter's records made during the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun are among the 
most interesting items in the Archive and are systematically being made available, as Tutankhamun: The Anatomy of an Excavation (http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/4tut.html), on the Institute's web pages. The papers of Robert Eisler (1882-1949) have recently been fully digitally recorded and several thousand negatives taken by Reginald St. Alban Heathcote (1888-1951) in Egypt c.1922-33 are being scanned. Currently, some of the photographs taken in Egypt by W. M. Flinders Petrie are being prepared for publication on the Institute's web pages (this project is undertaken in cooperation with The Friends of The Petrie Museum).
The web pages of the Griffith Institute constitute probably the most often consulted specialized Egyptology website in the world. They record between one and two million successful requests for pages every month.
The Griffith Institute supports financially the Sackler Library's collections of books and periodicals on Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Near East which are regarded as being among the best in the world. The latest accessions of the Library are listed on the Griffith Institute's web pages (http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/6.html).
The Griffith Institute also acts as a publisher of specialized Egyptological publications, about fifty of which are in print and which are listed on the Institute's web pages (http://griffith.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/gri/5.html).
