Greek Vases as Historical Evidence

Vases are a special source for our knowledge of ancient Greek culture. Vessel shapes, images and inscriptions offer a lot of information on the ideas and the way of life of ancient Greeks. They complement the written sources especially in areas so familiar to everyone, they were hardly noticed by ancient writers. With this, they contribute to a broader knowledge on Greek antiquity.typo3/

A Global Task

Greek vases in the museum: Collection of antiques in the Kunsthalle Kiel. (photo: Museum)

Founded in 1921, the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum project currently brings together 25 academies from all over the world to collaborate on a corpus of painted Greek vases in museums and collections.
The aim is the documentation and publication of all extent specimens according to uniform scholarly standards as a basis for future research.

From museum to library: current CVA volumes (photo Schmidt)

Publication Series

The project is regularly publishing volumes of the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum series, each of them cataloguing the vases of a particular museum or collection.
A series of supplements is devoted to current research questions in vase studies (see also Publications).

CVA digital

The volumes published to this date are digitally accessible at the CVAonline database. Additionally, the project’s German volumes can be accessed via the BAdW publication server (see also CVA digital).

Funding

Since 1980, the project is being funded in the framework of the German Akademienprogramm under the care and oversight of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.