Squeezes and Photographs

One essential tool for the epigrapher is the sqeeze : a paper inverser copy of aninscription.  Squeezes are produced by hammering a wetted piece of (filter) paper on a stone, and leave it to dry. Squeezes are easily tranported and can  last  avery long time. It is often preferable to have a squeeze at hand when you want to decipher an inscription, as they are more easy to handle! The English term squeeze is a bit misleading:  French  estampage, the German Abklatsch or even the Latin Ectypum give a better idea of the effort going into the production of a squeeze.  If you want to have an idea of how a squeeze is actually produced you may have a look HERE for  clips that  you also find on FROMSTONETOSSCREEN.

Several Classics departments and institutions are now offering on-line access to their collection of squeezes

The Oxford Center for the Study of Ancient Documents (CSAD) 

The CSAD has built up a considereabl squeeze collection which ist now entering in an image bank. You will find images for various areas of the Greek world.

Images of the squeeze collection at the Ohio State University.

The Center for Epigraphical and Palaeographical Studies at OSU offers photographs of a a large selection of (mainly) Athenian documents. For each image publication details are provided. You can of course browse for individual publications.

The McGregor squeeze collection at the University of British Columbia 

The McGregor squeeze collection consiste of more than 1000 squeeze of inscriptions mainly from classical Athens and Nemea.

Ecole française d’Athènes / Institut Fernand Courby HiSOMA

A project to make the many squeezes of French archaeological prohects that are kept in the EfA and the Institut Fernand Courby is now under way. You find more information HERE.

Intstitut für Altertumskunde , Cologne

The Greek inscriptions of the Institut für Altertumskunde at the University of Cologne also has a large collection.They are not available on-line. 

Archivum Corporis Electronicum

The  Archivum Corporis Electronicum offers  access to the collection of squeezes photographs etc. for the CIL A new website will be in oiperation  from March 2020: https://cil.bbaw.de/index.php?id=19

Le Fonds Louis Robert

Flickr site with more than 5000 Photos from the collection of  the late Louis Robert (Mainly Asia Minor) ,is maintained by the Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies . The photographs are in the public domain. Visitors are invited to help with the identification.


  © O M van Nijf 2021