Sex & Gender in the Ancient World - HIS 3350 - Kelly Diamond

The Library has a large collection of subject-specific encyclopedias, handbooks, and companions with exhaustive and well-researched articles written by subject experts. These essays are great introductions to the historiography of a topic and helpful in defining and focusing it. Look out for recommended secondary and primary sources.

Encyclopedia of Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell)
Covers all civilizations of the ancient Mediterranean world including the Near East and Egypt.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
Covers ancient Egyptian civilization, from the predynastic era to its eclipse in the seventh century CE.

Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd. ed.
Presents a cross-cultural approach that emphasizes religion's role within everyday life and as a unique experience from culture to culture.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East

A Companion to Ancient Egypt (Wiley-Blackwell)

A Companion to Ancient History (Wiley-Blackwell)

A Companion to Women in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell)

Companion to the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (Wiley-Blackwell)

Oxford Handbooks Online (Oxford University Press)
Each handbook introduces and surveys the state of scholarship in a field of study through review articles written by leading subject specialists.

Cambridge Histories Online (Cambridge University Press)
Provides online access to the well-regarded Cambridge Histories series. Includes the Cambridge Ancient History (12 vols., 2nd ed.) and other titles that cover ancient Egyptian history such as the Cambridge History of Africa and the Cambridge History of Religions in the Ancient World.

Explore the Library’s monograph collection with the help of the Books & Media file of the catalog. Books that are not available can be requested through interlibrary loan. Expect to wait for about a week.
Examples of Library of Congress subjects:
Women - History - To 500
Women - History - To 500 - Sources
Sex Role - History - To 500
Cleopatra - Queen of Egypt - d. 30 B.C.
Egypt - History - 332-30 B.C.

Falvey Library Catalog
Keyword and subject searches in the Library's catalog are good starting points when first exploring a topic. Search results can be narrowed with facets such as topic, era, language or region. Facets are located on the right hand side of the results screen.

WorldCat (FirstSearch)
Presents a combined catalog of the catalogs of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide. WorldCat highlights publications available at Villanova University. Other items can be requested via an inter-library loan request form.

JSTOR
A searchable and browsable archive of full-text core journals and books in the humanities, social sciences and mathematics.
Use the book tab to limit search result to books and book chapters.

EZBorrow and Interlibrary Loan
Use the Articles form to request digital scans of book chapters. Check the Library website for availability of interlibrary borrowing for print books.

The Library subscribes to many ancient history journals including The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, the Journal of Cuneiform Studies, American Antiquity, Near Eastern Archaeology, and the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.

Use the Journal and Article Finder or the Articles & more search on the Library’s website to look up known references. Request articles from journals that are not part of the Library's collections through interlibrary loan.

The journal databases listed here index the contents of most ancient history journals and are by far the best tools to discover articles published in these journals.

Trying to decipher a journal abbreviation?
Check the journal abbreviations lists below for the full journal title:
Abbreviations for titles of Classical/Medieval Studies journals (L'Annee Philologique)
Bibliographical Abbreviations (compiled for the Egyptologists' Electronic Forum)
Abbreviations for Assyriology (Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative, University of Oxford)

JSTOR
Provides a full text archive of academic journals and books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. The most recent three to five years of a journal are usually not included.

Humanities Full Text (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals in the humanities.

Gender Studies Database (EBSCO)
Indexes academic journals in many disciplines on topics relevant to gender studies. Includes abstracts for most citations. Coverage goes back to the early seventies.

Online Egyptological Bibliography (Oxford University)  Access Instructions
Indexes publications in Egyptology and includes the records and abstracts of the Annual Egyptological Bibliography (1947-2001), the Bibliographie Altägypten (1822-1946), and the Aigyptos database. Coverage goes back to 1822.

Art Full Text (EBSCO)
Art Full Text indexes and abstracts articles from art, art history and architecture journals. Full-text coverage is available for selected periodicals.

Articles & More Search
If all else fails give Articles & more a try. Use unambiguous keywords and limit results to articles from peer-reviewed journals.