A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon AWOL: The Ancient World on Line, a project largely managed by Charles E. Jones, who explains its purpose:

The primary focus of the project is notice and comment on open access material relating to the ancient world, but I will also include other kinds of networked information as it comes available.The ancient world is conceived here as it is at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, my academic home. That is, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pacific, from the beginnings of human habitation to the late antique / early Islamic period.

It doesnt take long for one to be impressed, not to say overwhelmed, by the variety of investigations under way all over the world as well as by the number of scholarly publications that record their progress. Many languages, ancient and modern, are part of the project. The list of journals available on-line includes many for biblical and patristic studies.As I know from sad (not really!) experience, each new item added to the open access list can easily tempt one away from what one is supposed to be doing. E.g,, a week or two ago, when the site took notice of the Vergil Project; or the other day, when the annuals of an association for Roman archaeology in Britain was added; ; or today when I learned of Lexicity, a site that gathers from all over the Internet useful and trustworthy materials for the study of ancient languages.

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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