Students interested in ancient Egyptian artifacts and temples now have a treasure trove of material to explore at Green Library.

The diverse collection of materials covers 1,500 years of history, dating back to approximately 650 B.C.

Before negotiations were completed, the collection resided in Copenhagen, Denmark. The University recently earned sole possession of the rare documents, which will be stored in Green Library.

“It’s really important to have this old material,” said Classics Prof. Joe Manning. “Obtaining the library is going to re-energize teachers, re-energize students and even attract more students. These are hands-on materials. It’s exciting for undergraduates to work with them, and they help so much in understanding our relation to the past.”

Aditi Iyer, a graduate student in classics, agreed that the materials present an exciting opportunity.

“I think primary sources like those we acquired with the Erichsen library are the best way to study a civilization,” she said. “There’s so much room for original interpretations when you get to look at the material firsthand.”

The collection is particularly valuable because of the out-of-date publishing techniques used in some of the pieces. The books feature larger-than-usual photographs of artifacts, which are favorable compared to digitized, shrunken versions.

“These are very big books,” Manning said. “They’re reproducing large texts and scrolls, even inscriptions on the sides of temples. You can’t reduce those without losing details. It’s not something you can really get from an eight by 11.”

The Erichsen collection provides a valuable resource for a field that lost much of its material to World War II and the modernization of Egypt.

“Some of [Erichsen’s] notes are on materials that may no longer exist,” Manning said.

And while the Stanford classics department focuses less on Egyptology than Greek and Roman studies, Manning is confident that this collection will help emphasize the importance of the ancient kingdom as an intersection of cultures and traditions.

“This is a country that matters quite a lot,” he said. “It’s a part of classical history and a part of biblical history, and all the while Egypt was also interacting with other major African civilizations. It will be easier to teach this stuff now.”

Manning noted that the materials are valuable teaching tools for everything from freshman seminars to graduate programs.

“I’m teaching a course in summer school on Papyrology, which focuses on training graduate students and junior professors in the technical processes of studying materials from this culture,” he said, “and we’re much better off having these materials at our fingertips.”

The materials will attract not just students, but also researchers. According to Iyer, the Erichsen collection could reveal much more about the transition period of Egyptian history it covers, as well as early Christianity.

“The Erichsen library is one of the greatest/most significant privately-owned Egyptology libraries in the world, and having it open for academic work is fabulous,” Iyer said. “We already have several amazing Egyptologists in our classics department at Stanford — the availability of the Erichsen library will undoubtedly lead to some fascinating projects.”

For modern scholars, Erichsen’s library in particular provides a unique glimpse of the past: Erichsen’s own.

“We have a perspective different from someone in 19th century Germany,” Manning said. “It’s important to recognize those differences as we embark on our scholarship in the present day.”

The rare collection is already highly sought after. Scholars across the world are interested in the texts for the content, the historical scholarship and what they show about the man who held them. Erichsen’s library is also fostering connections with schools in Copenhagen, where his papers and notes are still kept.

“With some of the texts, you can smell his pipe when you’re reading,” Manning said. “This was a real man, and he’s still present in these books.”