Almost all the items in our collection come from Egypt, where papyrus has been preserved by the dry climate. The oldest items date from about the 15th century B.C., the most recent from about the 16th century A.D.
The documents record all the languages and scripts that were used over the turbulent history of the land of the Nile since the time of the New Kingdom of the pharaohs. The majority of them are in Arabic, Greek or Coptic, but hieroglyphic, hieratic and demotic texts are kept as well. The less numerous Hebrew, Aramaic, Syrian, Ethiopian and Latin texts and the documents in Pahlavi (Middle Persian) are of great importance historically, because they document the multilingual culture of the country or shed light on specific historic situations.
Due to maintenance work, the reading rooms at Heldenplatz and all departments will be closed from Thursday, July 25 to Monday, August 5, 2024.
Due to the shutdown of the ordering system, no media orders can be accepted from Wednesday, July 24, 2024, 4 pm to Friday, August 2, 2024, 4 pm. The first book collection will take place again on Monday, August 5, 2024.
Due to an event, the State Hall will be closed on August 28, 2024.