The Institute's photographic collection dates back to the invention of photography itself and comprises over 300,000 photographs, of which around 200,000 are negatives.
Since its foundation, the photographic archive has been dedicated to the documentation of antiquities in Italy. The collections of sculpture and topography are particularly rich,
with images of archaeological sites and their monuments, mainly in Rome and Italy, but also in North Africa. Most of the negatives are the result of the photographic campaigns and projects of the Roman Institute,
and the images were taken by the Institute's photographers. The collection is constantly growing as a result of new photographic campaigns, donations and bequests.
In addition to the negatives, another important part of the collection is formed by historical prints, prints from the Institute's negatives and purchased copies.
Until 2009, the prints were mounted on cardboard and arranged thematically in photo boxes. Prints from the Institute's own negatives were also arranged in albums and "Italienkästen" (Italian boxes)
containing images of Italian archaeological sites, monuments and museums. The albums and photo boxes can be consulted at the Institute's Rome Department.
The photographic material has been systematically digitised in collaboration with the Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture at the University of Cologne.
The images are accessible open source via the online database iDAI.objects/Arachne.
One of the main and ongoing tasks of the Photo Archive is to catalogue the contents of the core collection.
History
The Institute has been collecting and working with images since the invention of photography. After Walther Amelung's death in 1927, the Institute inherited the collection he had acquired for his own research purposes.
From 1928, his successor, Ludwig Curtius, systematically organised and expanded the photographic archive into its present form. In the early 1930s, the Institute acquired a laboratory
and created the position of an in-house photographer. As a result, the collection has grown considerably and has been enriched by extensive photographic campaigns. Today the Roman Photo Archive is a unique research tool in archaeology.
The German Archaeological Institute (DAI) Rome photo archive in iDAI.objects/Arachne
Information about the identity numbers of the negatives
All negatives held by the Institute have a negative number, i.e. an inventory number made up of the date (year of inventory, not of shooting) and a sequential four-digit number.
The date is a two-digit number until 1999 and a four-digit number from 2000 onwards. The abbreviation D-DAI-ROM in front of the eight-digit number identifies the negative as belonging
to the photo archive of the DAI in Rome.
The negative numbers are stated as follows:
e.g.: D-DAI-ROM-38.1329; D-DAI-ROM-2007.0023
Negatives without date are part of the stock existing prior to 1928 (e.g. D-DAI-ROM-00013).
Within the holdings of the Photo Archive there are also negative numbers with letter codes inserted to identify specific groups of images within the collection (e.g. bequests or major projects).
In those cases, the negative numbers are stated as follows: e.g.
- D-DAI-ROM-HEE-01230 = estate Christa Hees-Landwehr, sculpture in the National Museum of Cherchell
- D-DAI-ROM-96Vat.1365 = Vatican project, collection of antique sculpture
- D-DAI-ROM-RAK-00322 = estate Friedrich Rakob
Structure of the collection
The digitised collection has been structured on two different levels in the object database iDAI.objects/Arachne, differentiating between the structured and tree-structured stock.
Images in the structured inventory are associated with individual objects and monuments. In the tree structure, images are grouped by year of inventory or topography/category.
Tree-structured stock
Most of the tree-structured holdings are managed via the Master Tree (Masterbaum): this is where the digitised negatives are arranged according to the year in which they were taken, followed by projects and estates.
Further information on the negatives is documented in the photo archive's inventory registers. Until the end of the 1990s, these were used to manage the Institute's own negatives,
those acquired from other institutions and those donated. The books have been digitised in collaboration with the Research Archive for Ancient Sculpture and can be searched in the database iDAI.objects/Arachne.
The inventory registers can be found by typing “Inventarbuch” and the desired year (e.g. 1929) in the look-up field. An overview of all inventory registers can be found here.
The inventory registers contain lists composed of nine columns including the following information (from left to right):
- Photo No.
- Date of inventory
- Negative format
- Photographer
- A short description of the object
- Repository at the time of admission
- Comments (e.g. dimensions, references etc.)
- Negative No.
If the negative number is missing, this means that the photo archive of the DAI in Rome does not own the negative, but has bought it, inherited it or received it as a donation.
The tree structure called Microfiche contains the digitised prints. This collection is organised according to the main research categories of Classical Archaeology and mirrors the thematic organisation of the photo boxes.
Categories of the DAI Rome's photo archive
- Architectural parts (columns, bases, capitals)
- Bronze (statuettes, mirrors, weapons, vessels)
- Architectural sculpture (Greece; Magna Graecia; Italy; acroteres, tympanon decoration, metopes etc.)
- Ideal sculpture (gods; mythological figures; non-mythological statues; animals; mythological creatures)
- Inscriptions (Greek; Latin)
- Minor art (glass; gems; precious metals)
- Paintings(Etruscan; Italic / Magna Graecia; Pompeian; Roman)
- Mosaics (focus: Italy; Roman provinces)
- Portrait sculpture (Greek; Etruscan-Italic; Roman)
- Reliefs (Greek; Greek-southern Italian; Etruscan; Roman)
- Sarkophagi (Greek; Etruscan; republican-early imperial; imperial; christian)
- Stucco (Etruskisch; Römisch)
- Terracotta (mainly Italy: Figural; architectural)
- Topography (Greece; Italy; some Roman provinces)
- Vases (protogeometric; geometric; Proto-Corinthian; Corinthian; Greek; Laconian; Chalcidian; Boiotian; Attic; Italic-Etruscan; Etruscan; Hellenistic; Roman)
The search results can be refined further by using the filters on the left.
Catalogued special collections
Many other groups of photographs (e.g. donations, bequests) are being catalogued on an ongoing basis, but are not yet available through the Master Tree. An overview of special collections can be found here.
Images from smaller special collections have been inventoried in various years in the so-called Master Tree. They are also continuously worked on and will be edited using catalogues in iDAI.objects/Arachne.
An overview of ongoing and completed projects, including links to the corresponding catalogues, can be found here
and on some project websites (e.g. the bequest of Friedrich Rakob).
Donations and bequests with a focus on North Africa are integrated in the North African Research Archive (NARA), a platform for documenting the archaeological heritage of North Africa,
particularly Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Morocco. The NARA archives also include the bequest of Friedrich Wilhelm Deichmann.
Within the structured image library, the images are organised by object. The objects can be searched using the meta search engine and the filters on the left.
Alternatively, you can search for the negative number of an image using the meta search engine (see above). The structured collection in iDAI.objects/Arachne focuses on the objects and not on the photos.
Objects, monuments etc. can therefore be linked to several images, even from different archives of the DAI as well as from other projects.
Address
German Archaeological Institute
Rome Department
Via Sardegna 79/81
00187 Roma
Contact
E-Mail: fotothek.rom@dainst.de
Telephone: + 39 06 488 81 472 (Information consultation)
Telephone: + 39 06 488 81 470 (direction)
Last updated: 16.01.2025
The Rome photo archive on the German Archaeological Institute's website
