HIST 104: The Ancient Mediterranean World

Browsing for books on the shelves can be a very useful way to gather materials on a topic. For libraries using the Library of Congress system for classifying books, all books on a topic are shelved together. For some heavily studied areas of the Ancient Mediterranean world the relevant call number sections are:

BM 1 to BM 990 -- Judaism

BR 1 to BR 275 -- Early Christianity

DE -- The Mediterranean Region. Greco-Roman world

DF10 to DF 289 -- Ancient Greece

DG 11 to DG 365 -- Ancient Italy. Rome to 476

DS 41 to DS 66 -- Middle East. Arab East. Near East.

DS 101 to DS 151 -- Israel (Palestine)

HQ 1127 to HQ 1137 -- Women in Antiquity

N 5600 to N 5800 -- Ancient Greek and Roman art

PA 3000-3049 -- Classical literature, generally

PA 3050-4505 -- Greek literature

PA 6000-6971 -- Roman literature

As with any database, you can search Knox Primo using keywords that describe your topic. 

• Use as few terms as possible that describe your topic. For instance, if you searched using the phrase "laws governing moral conduct in ancient rome" you would not retrieve any items. A better search uses just the fewest terms to describe your topic, like this: rome law
• When using search operators you must capitalize them!
  • Use OR to combine synonyms:  gay OR homosexual
  • Use AND to combine different concepts and group synonyms within parentheses:  (gay OR homosexual) AND ancient greece
• Use the facets in the left column of your results screen to narrow your search. 
• ​When you find a record for a book that is highly relevant, you can often find other books by clicking on a relevant subject headings link: 

Libraries use a call number system to organize materials in their collections. A call number allows you to find a book on the shelf, and also gives you some indication of the subject matter of the book. Watch this brief video (3:55) to learn how to read call numbers. 

Use Knox Primo to check for books and technical reports that you can borrow from another I-Share library. When searching, choose the "All I-Share Libraries" search option:

I-Share deliveries usually arrive in about 5 days.