Archives of the DAI Athens and the Archaeology of Greece (ArchAthen)

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The DAI Athens is the second-oldest department of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) abroad and home to an extensive archive dating back to the department’s foundation in 1874. At present the department’s archive hosts several collections, including administrative and institutional documents, archaeological illustrations, the photographic archive, the map collection, the collection of aerial photography, photo prints and scholarly papers (Nachlässe). These unique documents provide primary source material for tracking the history of the institute, Classical scholarship, as well as Germany’s international cultural relations. This project sets out to make a large part of these archival collections more accessible to the academic community and the wider public by making available online the necessary indexing resources, description of records as well as the digitized documents themselves. Given the increasing interest in the history of institutions, academic disciplines and the German-Greek relations, such digital resources will enhance significantly the availability of primary source material for scholars working in these fields. In addition, digitization is expected to provide a solid basis for long-term protection and storage of these important but also perishable materials. Starting from 2020, the project is planned for six years and will devote itself to digitizing, indexing and making available online selected collections. The first phase is dedicated to the institutional and administrative documents until 1944, a unique collection of aerial photographs from 1941/1942, as well as six collections of scholarly papers belonging to important archaeologists and scholars of Classics of the time between the late 19th and the early 20th century. In a second phase, the project will include the institutional documents from 1951 to 1974, the collection of archaeological illustrations, as well as further six collections of papers by prominent scholars. These collections bear witness to the uniqueness, originality and wider significance of the archives housed in the DAI Athens, while also reflecting an enormous potential as research tools that can be utilized in the context of various agendas. The administrative documents, for one, provide source material for reconstructing the history of one of the oldest and largest archaeological institutions in Greece and for tracking its contribution to the study of Greece's past. Furthermore, it is expected that digitization of specific collections such as the aerial photos and the collected papers of individual scholars will not only enhance our knowledge about Greek archaeology but also enable the re-contextualization of old finds and unpublished results. Not least, given that the DAI Athens was a hub of archaeological activities in Greece since its foundation, its archives are especially relevant for the history of Classical scholarship in Germany and of Greek archaeology in the late 19th and 20th century.