 | |
| Formation | 2012; 12 years ago (2012) |
|---|---|
| Founder | Judith McKenzie |
| Type | Open-access photo archive |
| Headquarters | Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford |
Director | Ine Jacobs |
| Website | https://www.manar-al-athar.ox.ac.uk |
Manar al-Athar is a photo archive based at the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford which aims to provide high-quality[1] open-access images of archaeological sites and buildings. The archive's collection focuses on areas of the Roman Empire which later came under Islamic rule,[2][3] namely the Levant, North Africa, Turkey, Georgia and Armenia. As of June 2022, the archive holds more than 83,000 unique images. Particular strengths include Late antiquity,[1] as well as the transition from paganismtoChristianity and later to Islam.[4]
The archive licenses its images under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license;[5] the images can be used for any non-commercial purpose, including in academic publications, and are jointly labelled in English and Arabic to encourage usage by academics and students around the world.
Manar al-Athar was founded in 2012 by Judith McKenzie, archaeologist and Associate Professor of Late Antique Egypt and the Holy Land at the University of Oxford.[6] Its creation was inspired by McKenzie's experience lecturing at Birzeit University in Palestine; she discovered that her students were not able to visit most of the Palestinian monuments which she was discussing, and thus sought to Manar al-Athar to provide open-access images for such students and academics to use.[7] McKenzie was the Director of Manar al-Athar from its conception until her death in 2019; since 2020, the archive's director has been Ine Jacobs, Associate Professor of Byzantine Archaeology and Visual Culture at the University of Oxford.[8]
Manar al-Athar sponsors a publication series, and as of June 2022 has published the following works:
† indicates works published jointly with the American Schools of Orient Research.
