Oxbow Books

206 products


  • Far from Equilibrium: An Archaeology of Energy,

    Oxbow Books Far from Equilibrium: An Archaeology of Energy,

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisArchaeology is in crisis. Spatial turns, material turns and the ontological turn have directed the discipline away from its hard-won battle to ­ find humanity in the past. Meanwhile, popularised science, camouflaged as archaeology, produces shock headlines built on ancient DNA analyses that reduce humanity’s most intriguing historical problems to ‘just-so stories’. Today archaeology ­finds itself less able than ever to proclaim its relevance to the modern world.This volume foregrounds the relevance of the scholarship of John C. Barrett to this crisis. Twenty-four writers representing three generations of archaeologists scrutinise the current turmoil in the discipline and highlight the resolutions that may be found through Barrett’s analytical framework. Topics include archaeology and the senses, the continuing problem of the archaeological record, practice, discourse and agency, reorienting archaeological field practice, the question of different expressions of human diversity and material ecologies. Understanding archaeology as both a universal and highly specific discipline, case studies range from the Aegean to Orkney, and encompass Anatolia, Korea, Romania, the United Kingdom and the very nature of the Universe itself. This critical examination of John Barrett’s contribution to archaeology is simultaneously a response to his urgent call to arms to reorient archaeology in the service of humanity.Table of ContentsList of contributors List of tables List of figures Preface The archaeology of John C. Barrett 1. (Re)placing humanity? Responses to the crisis in archaeology Michael J. Boyd and Roger C.P. Doonan 2. Bibliography of John C. Barrett Prehistory in transition 3. The late Neolithic midden in Orkney: decay, assemblages and the efficacy of unwanted things Jane Downes and Colin Richards 4. In what way is one dead for an Eneolithic tell community? The construction of the dead body’s presence at Căscioarele-Ostrovel (Romania) Alexandra Ion 5. Conceptualising wealth and value in the Bronze Age Christopher Tilley 6. An assemblage of Early Bronze Age metalwork from the Scottish Highlands: Dail na Caraidh in retrospect Richard Bradley Fields of discourse and an archaeology of inhabitation 7. ‘Contextual archaeology’ revisited: reflections on archaeology, assemblages and semiotics Zoë Crossland 8. Making the past human: history, archaeology and myth Martial Staub 9. What future for archaeology’s past? Krysti Damilati and Giorgos Vavouranakis 10. Fragments from Minoan Crete: social practice at the EM IIA–MM IB (2650–1875 BCE) Court Building at Knossos Ilse Schoep 11. Cemeteries of discourse: re-inhabiting a social arena Mark S. Peters 12. Towards an ‘archaeology of the conditions of possibility’ Ilhong Ko 13. ‘Fields of discourse’ revisited: a Simondonian perspective Despina Catapoti and Maria Relaki Practice and record 14. ‘Ode to a treethrow’ and other reflexive thoughts: multivocal engagements at Heathrow airport Catriona Gibson 15. Project design and implementation: reflections on Framework Michael J. Boyd with Colin Renfrew 16. From fields of discourse to fields of sensoriality: rethinking the archaeological record Yannis Hamilakis 17. Critical discourse and creative labours: learning and teaching archaeology with John C. Barrett Brian Boyd Material ecologies and forms of humanness 18. Bio-socio-material entanglements: archaeology and the extended evolutionary synthesis Ian Hodder 19. To love is to nourish: a thermodynamic perspective on practice and perception Roger C.P. Doonan 20. Is the universe sentient? What implications might this have for archaeology? Chris Gosden and Mark PollardPerspective 21. Agency and life Andrew Meirion Jones Index

    15 in stock

    £69.14

  • Interrogating Networks: Investigating Networks of

    Oxbow Books Interrogating Networks: Investigating Networks of

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisNetwork theory and methodologies have become central to exploring and explaining social, economic and political relationships and connections in past societies. However, in archaeology, the deployment of networks has sometimes been more descriptive than analytical. Methodologies have often depended upon underlying assumptions which inevitably simplify relationships that were complex and multi-faceted. However, the fragmentary, heterogenous and usually proxy data we possess are not always amenable to reconstructing that complexity.In ancient societies, we must infer the movement of knowledge about 'how to make things' largely from objects themselves. This is because we usually lack direct evidence of the human relationships that entwined people with objects and their makers, and hence have only imperfect understanding of the full range of diverse factors that shaped the relationships that constituted these networks.The chapters in this volume aim to interrogate the interpretative potential of network concepts for understanding the movement over time and space of ideas about making, using and moving things through a range of archaeological case studies, which reveal both functional and dysfunctional relationships. The purpose is to consider how more broadly contextualised and multi-faceted studies can both enhance, and be enhanced by, network and related approaches. The volume contributes to the search for greater understanding of the movement and transmission of knowledge (or in some cases their absence), and to debates about how best to expand the utility of network concepts and approaches.Table of ContentsList of illustrations Author biographies Introduction Lin Foxhall 1. Materiality, methodologies and the agency of things in archaeological networks Lin Foxhall 2. Zeitgeist: materialised worldviews in archaeology Susanne Hakenbeck, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury and Roderick B. Salisbury 3. From systems of power to networks of knowledge: the nature of El Argar culture (southeastern Iberia, c. 2200–1500 BC) Borja Legarra Herrero 4. The breakdown of knowledge: people and pottery at the Bronze Age tell at Százhalombatta-Földvár, Hungary Joanna Sofaer 5. Connecting the world of the Bronze Age Anthony Harding 6. Innovation through recoil from networks Julie Hruby 7. Networks and assemblages: a view from Archaic Sicily Carla M. Antonaccio Index

    15 in stock

    £22.73

  • Fragments of the Bronze Age: The Destruction and

    Oxbow Books Fragments of the Bronze Age: The Destruction and

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe destruction and deposition of metalwork is a widely recognised phenomenon across Bronze Age Europe. Weapons were decommissioned and thrown into rivers; axes were fragmented and piled in hoards; and ornaments were crushed, contorted and placed in certain landscapes. Interpretation of this material is often considered in terms of whether such acts should be considered ritual offerings, or functional acts for storing, scrapping and recycling the metal. This book approaches this debate from a fresh perspective, by focusing on how the metalwork was destroyed and deposited as a means to understand the reasons behind the process.To achieve this, this study draws on experimental archaeology, as well as developing a framework for assessing what can be considered deliberate destruction. Understanding these processes not only helps us to recognise how destruction happened, but also gives us insights into the individuals involved in these practices. Through an examination of metalwork from south-west Britain, it is possible to observe the complexities involved at a localised level in the acts of destruction and deposition, as well as how they were linked to people and places. This case study is used to consider the social role of destruction and deposition more broadly in the Bronze Age, highlighting how it transformed over time and space.Trade Review[T]his will serve as a source of inspiration for further experimental work, but it will also become essential reading for anyone with an interest in the destruction and burial of Bronze Age metalwork. * Current Archaeology *Table of Contents1. Piece offerings: approaches to the destruction and deposition of Bronze Age metalwork 2. Making sense of the pieces 3. Burnt, broken and buried: the Chalcolithic-Early Bronze Age, c. 2450-1500 BC 4. Selective destruction: the Middle Bronze Age, 1500-1150 BC 5. Mass Destruction and Minor Destruction: the Late Bronze Age-Earliest Iron Age c. 1150-600 BC 6. Destruction and deposition of metalwork in south-west Britain in its wider context 7. Final fragments - what do the pieces tell us?

    15 in stock

    £41.40

  • Marking Place: New Perspectives on Early

    Oxbow Books Marking Place: New Perspectives on Early

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisMuch archaeological work is concerned with identifying gaps in our knowledge and developing strategies for addressing them; we perhaps spend less time thinking about how research should proceed when we already know, relatively speaking, quite a lot. ­The programme of dating causewayed enclosures in southern Britain that was published in 2011 as Gathering Time (Oxbow Books) gave us a new, more precise chronology for many individual sites as well as for enclosures as a whole, and as a consequence a far better sense of their significance and place in the story of the British Early Neolithic. Arguably, causewayed enclosures are now the best understood type of Neolithic monument. Yet work continues, and in the last few years new discoveries have been made, older excavations published and further work undertaken on well-known sites. Viewing this research within the new framework for these monuments allows us to assess where our understanding of enclosures has got to and where the focus of future research should lie.This volume originates from a Neolithic Studies Group meeting held in November 2019, which aimed firstly to showcase and explore the wide range of current work on causewayed enclosures and related sites, and secondly to assess what we still want to know about these sites in light of the monumental achievement of Gathering Time. ­The papers collected here comprise reports on recent development-led fieldwork, academic research and community projects, and the volume concludes with a reflection by the authors of Gathering Time.Table of Contents1. Introduction: marking place Jonathan Last 2. Interrogating the Third Dimension: enclosures and surface artefact distributions Joshua Pollard 3. Early Neolithic Tor Enclosures of South-Western England Simon R. Davies 4. Structural and Sequential Complexity in Causewayed Enclosures: implications from Dorstone Hill, Herefordshire Nick Overton, Keith Ray and Julian Thomas 5. A Demographic Perspective on Burial Practices at Early Neolithic Enclosures in South-East England Dawn Cansfield 6. The Freston Causewayed Enclosure, Suffolk: initial insight and hypothetical history Tristan Carter, Nathaniel Jackson, Rose Moir, Peter Allen, Helene Burningham, Daniel Contreras, Tim Schofield and Richard Tipping 7. Expanding the Neolithic of Hembury, East Devon F.M. Griffith and E.M. Wilkes 8. Come, Friendly Bones, Flint And Pots… Datchet’s Fit for the Neolithic Now: recent work at Riding Court Farm, Datchet John Powell 9. Gathering Time for Harlow Robin Webb 10. Butts Brow: Coombe Hill’s Counterpart? Initial excavations at an early Neolithic enclosure monument in Eastbourne Stephen Patton 11. Gathering Space Dave Durkin 12. Made In Hembury: an experimental reconstruction of the Hembury bowl Angie Wickenden 13. A Decade On: revised timings for causewayed enclosures in southern Britain Alasdair Whittle, Alex Bayliss and Frances Healy

    15 in stock

    £38.00

  • The Dean and Canons' Houses of St George's

    Oxbow Books The Dean and Canons' Houses of St George's

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe College of St George at Windsor Castle was founded by Edward III in 1348 to support the newly created Order of the Garter, and to this day fulfils the same primary purpose. The domestic buildings provided for the Warden, Canons and Priest-Vicars – now the Deanery and Canons Cloister – are an astonishing survival: despite enlargement and alteration over the centuries, a significant amount of the mid-fourteenth-century fabric survives, though often hidden from view. A recent programme of refurbishment and conservation revealed much hitherto unknown evidence for the way the buildings were constructed, their fittings and decoration and their subsequent evolution. The author maintained a continuous ‘watching brief’ throughout the refurbishment works, the results of which are published here for the first time.The archaeological evidence is supplemented by the excellent survival of documentation, both for the initial construction of the buildings and their subsequent development: we know the precise date of each stage of construction, the cost and even the names of the workmen involved. The post-medieval history of the buildings is also highly significant, and for this period we have the benefit of knowing more about the deans and canons who influenced the ways their dwellings developed, and of a continued wealth of documentary evidence.Table of ContentsIntroduction Acknowledgements The numbering of the houses of Canons’ Cloister List of abbreviations 1. The castle down to the reign of Henry III 2. The foundation of the College of St George 3. The construction of Canons’ Cloister 4. The Deanery from the 1350s to the Civil War 5. The evolution of Canons’ Cloister down to the Civil War 6. The Civil War to c. 1830 7. From 1830 to the present day

    15 in stock

    £55.88

  • Exploring Writing Systems and Practices in the

    Oxbow Books Exploring Writing Systems and Practices in the

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisWriting does not begin and end with the encoding of an idea into a group of symbols. It is practised by people who have learnt its principles and acquired the tools and skills for doing it, in a particular context that affects what they do and how they do it. Nor are these practices static, as those involved exploit opportunities to adapt old features and develop new ones. The act of writing then has tangible and visible consequences not only for the writers but also for those encountering what has been produced, whether they can read its content or not – with potential for a wider social visibility that can in turn affect the success and longevity of the writing system itself.With a focus on the syllabic systems of the Bronze Age Aegean, this book attempts to bring together different perspectives to create an innovative interdisciplinary outlook on what is involved in writing: from structuralist views of writing as systems of signs with their linguistic values, to archaeological and anthropological approaches to writing as a socially grounded practice. The main chapters focus on the concepts of script adoption and adaptation; different methods of logographic writing; and the vitality of writing traditions, with repercussions for the modern world.Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS) is a project funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 677758), and based in the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Tables and Figures Introduction Cretan Hieroglyphic, Linear A and Linear B (and their Cypriot cousins) Chronology Theoretical perspectives and terminology 1: Exploring script adoption How do we know that Linear B adopted Linear A syllabographic sign values with little change? Can we use Linear B sign values or structural features to reconstruct Minoan phonology or other linguistic features? How should we understand the nature of the transition from Linear A to B? 2: Exploring logography Classifying signs in writing systems Linear B Linear A Cretan Hieroglyphic Understanding logography in the Bronze Age Aegean 3: Exploring vitality Cretan Hieroglyphic Linear A Linear B Syllabic writing in Cyprus Relationships between writing and language vitality The vitality of writing traditions Epilogue: writing for the future Bibliography

    15 in stock

    £60.80

  • The Drowning of a Cornish Prehistoric Landscape:

    Oxbow Books The Drowning of a Cornish Prehistoric Landscape:

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisBetween 2018 and 2019, Cornwall Archaeological Unit undertook two projects at Mount’s Bay, Penwith. The first involved the excavation of a Bronze Age barrow and the second, environmental augur core sampling in Marazion Marsh. Both sites lie within an area of coastal hinterland, which has been subject to incursions by rising sea levels. Since the Mesolithic, an area of approximately 1 kilometre in extent between the current shoreline and St Michael’s Mount has been lost to gradually rising sea levels. With current climate change, this process is likely to occur at an increasing rate. Given their proximity, the opportunity was taken to draw the results from the two projects together along with all available existing environmental data from the area.For the first time, the results from all previous palaeoenvironmental projects in the Mount’s Bay area have been brought together. Evidence for coastal change and sea level rise is discussed and a model for the drowning landscape presented. In addition to modelling the loss of land and describing the environment over time, social responses including the wider context of the Bronze Age barrow and later Bronze Age metalwork deposition in the Mount’s Bay environs are considered. The effects of the gradual loss of land are discussed in terms of how change is perceived, its effects on community resilience, and the construction of social memory and narratives of place.The volume presents the potential for nationally significant environmental data to survive, which demonstrates the long-term effects of climate change and rising sea levels, and peoples’ responses to these over time.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Summary Section 1: Background Chapter 1: Introduction (Andy M. Jones) Section 2: Excavations at the Penzance Heliport barrow Chapter 2: Results from the 2018 fieldwork (Andy M. Jones, Anna Lawson-Jones & Michael J. Allen) Chapter 3: The pottery and worked stone (Henrietta Quinnell & Christina Tsoraki with petrographic comment by Roger Taylor) Chapter 4: The flint and pebbles (Anna Lawson-Jones) Chapter 5: The copper alloy ingot (Anna Tyacke with comment from Jens Andersen) Chapter 6: The palaeoenvironmental evidence (Michael J. Allen, with A.J. Clapham, C.T. Langdon & R.G. Scaife) Chapter 7: Results from radiocarbon dating of the Heliport (Michael J. Allen & Andy M. Jones) Section 3: Fieldwork at Marazion Marsh Chapter 8: Background and methodology (Michael J. Allen & Andy M. Jones) Chapter 9: The paleoenvironmental sequence from the core (Michael J. Allen, with N Cameron, A.J. Clapham & C.T. Langdon) Chapter 10: The changing environmental and land-use history of the Marsh environs (Michael J. Allen) Section 4: The environmental, economic and cultural setting of the Penzance and south Cornwall landscape: excavated sites and their wider landscape context Chapter 11: The submerging landscape from Prehistory into the Anthropocene (Michael J Allen) Chapter 12: A landscape of deposition (Andy M. Jones & Matthew G. Knight) Chapter 13: The Bronze Age engagements with a liminal space (Andy M. Jones) Chapter 14: The results from the project: Inhabiting a changing landscape (Andy M. Jones & Michael J. Allen) Chapter 15: A drowned landscape reimagined (Emma Smith) Appendices Appendix 1: The conservation of the copper alloy ingot fragment (Laura Ratcliffe- Warren) Appendix 2: The borehole logs (Michael J. Allen)

    15 in stock

    £42.06

  • Animals and Archaeology in Northern Medieval

    Oxbow Books Animals and Archaeology in Northern Medieval

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is the third book on material studies in this series on medieval Novgorod and its territory, and deals with a substantial body of animal bones that has been recovered over the last decade. The zooarchaeological evidence is discussed by the editor and a number of other British and Russian specialists looking at the remains of mammals, birds and fish. Topics discussed include diet, butchery practices, the exploitation of fur and skins, mortality patterns of mammals, and metrical analyses of a wide range of species. Detailed data sets are provided to enable the reader to make comparisons with their own research, but the book is also suitable for those with a more general interest in medieval Russian archaeology.

    15 in stock

    £75.80

  • Thomas White (c. 1736-1811): Redesigning the

    Oxbow Books Thomas White (c. 1736-1811): Redesigning the

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis volume aims to restore the reputation of Thomas White, who in his time was as well respected as his fellow landscape designers Lancelot 'Capability' Brown and Humphry Repton. By the end of his career, he had produced designs for at least 32 sites across northern England and over 60 in Scotland. These include nationally important designed landscapes in Yorkshire such as Harewood House, Sledmere Hall, Burton Constable Hall, Newby Hall, Mulgrave Castle as well as Raby Castle in Durham, Belle Isle in Cumbria and Brocklesby Hall in Lincolnshire. He has a vital role in the story of how northern English designed landscapes evolved in the 18th century.The book focuses on White's known commissions in England and sheds further light on the work of other designers such as Brown and Repton, who worked on many of the same sites. White set up as an independent designer in 1765, having worked for Brown from 1759, and his style developed over the next thirty years. Never merely a 'follower of Brown', as he is often erroneously described, his designs for plantations in particular were much admired and influenced the later, more informal styles of the picturesque movement.The improvement plans he produced for his clients demonstrate his surveying and artistic skills. These plans were working documents but at the same time works of art in their own right. Over 60 of his beautifully-executed coloured plans survive, which is a testament to the value his clients placed on them. This book makes available for the first time over 90% of the known plans and surveys by White for England. Also included are plans by White's contemporaries, together with later maps, estate surveys and contemporary illustrations to understand which parts of improvement plans were implemented.Trade ReviewThis is an introduction to White’s work built on exhaustive research ... There is much insight here on White and on the way in which landscape designers were commissioned and operated that is rare in writing on this period … Despite his successful and prolific career White has not been the primary subject of attention until now. In this book Turnbull and Wickham have filled the gap and provided researchers with a thorough survey of his work and career. * Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Lands *Over 60 of his beautifully executed coloured plans survive, which is a testament to the value his clients placed on them. This book makes available for the first time over 90% of the known plans and surveys by White for England. * Yorkshire Gardens Trust *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of figures Abbreviations Chapter 1 Thomas White in context Chapter 2 Early career and working with Brown Chapter 3 First commissions: 1765–8 Chapter 4 Established landscape designer: 1769–80 Chapter 5 Later career: 1781–1803 Chapter 6 Getting the commission Chapter 7 His landscape designs Chapter 8 Working methods Chapter 9 Arboricultural activities Chapter 10 Thomas White in Scotland by Christopher Dingwall Chapter 11 White’s sites in England 11.1 Armley 11.2 Belle Isle 11.3 Blyborough 11.4 Brocklesby 11.5 Burton Constable 11.6 Busby 11.7 Campsall 11.8 Carlton 11.9 Colwick 11.10 Copgrove 11.11 Fryston 11.12 Goldsborough 11.13 Grimston Garth 11.14 Grove 11.15 Harewood 11.16 Hawksworth 11.17 Holme 11.18 Houghton 11.19 Kirkleatham 11.20 Lumley 11.21 Mulgrave 11.22 Newby 11.23 Norton 11.24 Owston 11.25 Raby 11.26 Scarisbrick 11.27 Sedbury 11.28 Skelton Castle 11.29 Sledmere 11.30 Welton 11.31 Workington 11.32 Others – Kilnwick and Stapleton Bibliography Index

    15 in stock

    £39.99

  • Buttons and Design Scarabs

    Oxbow Books Buttons and Design Scarabs

    15 in stock

    15 in stock

    £31.85

  • The Birds of Ancient Egypt

    Oxbow Books The Birds of Ancient Egypt

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisHailed as a sumptuously produced and finely illustrated outstanding contribution to ancient Egyptian studies, this facsimile reprint of Patrick Houlihan’s 1986 comprehensive study makes a welcome return in the Oxbow Classics in Egyptology series.Animals of all kinds are amply illustrated in Egyptian art, none more so than birds, in both secular and religious contexts and in hieroglyphic scripts. A great variety of bird species has for millennia made twice yearly migrations passing over Egypt, which is also an important overwintering area for many. These migrant birds, together with indigenous species were an abundant and easily exploited source of food for ancient Egyptians, for domestication and status display. Tomb scenes displaying birds provided as food for the deceased are abundant, as are procession scenes of offering with bearers bringing gifts of fowl. Many birds also had religious associations. Houlihan provides a systematic and unparalleled survey of all the bird life depicted by the ancient Egyptians in art and hieroglyphic writing face=Calibri>– some 72 species (plus bats) – with a list of known mummified species, discussions on their religious and secular associations, and many illustrations. Their present-day distributions are compared with that known from the time of the Pharoahs. A checklist of the birds of modern Egypt is provided by Steven Goodman.Table of ContentsSources of the figures Map of Ancient Egypt Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations and references cited The catalogue Appendix I The mummified birds Appendix II A preliminary checklist to the Birds of Egypt, by Steven M. Goodman Notes to the catalogue and checklist Chronological table Index

    15 in stock

    £47.82

  • Brick Architecture in Ancient Egypt

    Oxbow Books Brick Architecture in Ancient Egypt

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisFirst published in 1979, this facsimile edition of Jeffrey Spencer’s comprehensive study provides a detailed account of the brick architecture of ancient Egypt. Part I provides introductory information on brick manufacture, early use of brick in Egypt and explains the corpus of brick bonding systems. Part II provides an account of the surviving brick buildings, discussed by type, with special reference to technical and structural matter. Part III presents an examination of the constructional techniques employed at different periods for various purposes. A discussion of the kinds of bricks used, their sizes, and bonding is included.This series comprises facsimile re-issues of typological catalogues produced between 1898 and 1937 by W.M. Flinders Petrie, based on his vast collection of Egyptian artefacts which now reside in The Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, University College, London. Long out of print, the catalogues were re-issued in facsimile by publishers Aris & Phillips in the 1970s alongside newly-commissioned titles by contemporary experts – of which Brick Architecture in Ancient Egypt is one. The Oxbow Classics in Egyptology series makes a selection of these important resources – which remain invaluable source material – available again in print for a new generation of students and scholars.Table of ContentsAbbreviations Preface Introduction Part I 1. Brick manufacture 2. The earliest use of brick in Egypt 3. The bonding corpus Part II 4. Funerary architecture 5. Religious architecture 6. Administrative and official buildings 7. Domestic architecture 8. Fortresses and defensive town walls Part III 9. Brick walls 10. Floors and foundations 11. Arches, vaults, domes and corbels 12. Solid brick construction in mastabas and pyramids 13. Supplementary materials in brick construction 14. Bonding 15. Special bricks 16. Brick sizes Appendix I: Metrology of Egyptian brickwork Indexes Plates

    15 in stock

    £47.83

  • Neolithic Impressed and Related Wares in Britain and Ireland

    Oxbow Books Limited Neolithic Impressed and Related Wares in Britain and Ireland

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisFirst ever national synthesis of the Neolithic Impressed Ware ceramic tradition that dominates the Middle Neolithic period in Britain and Ireland, arranged by region, and written by acknowledged experts in their field.

    15 in stock

    £54.07

  • Iron Age and Roman Coin Hoards in Britain

    Oxbow Books Iron Age and Roman Coin Hoards in Britain

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisMore coin hoards have been recorded from Roman Britain than from any other province of the Empire. This comprehensive and lavishly illustrated volume provides a survey of over 3260 hoards of Iron Age and Roman coins found in England and Wales with a detailed analysis and discussion.Theories of hoarding and deposition and examined, national and regional patterns in the landscape settings of coin hoards presented, together with an analysis of those hoards whose findspots were surveyed and of those hoards found in archaeological excavations. It also includes an unprecedented examination of the containers in which coin hoards were buried and the objects found with them. The patterns of hoarding in Britain from the late 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD are discussed. The volume also provides a survey of Britain in the 3rd century AD, as a peak of over 700 hoards are known from the period from AD 253–296. This has been a particular focus of the project which has been a collaborative research project between the University of Leicester and the British Museum funded by the AHRC. The aim has been to understand the reasons behind the burial and non-recovery of these finds. A comprehensive online database (https://finds.org.uk/database) underpins the project, which also undertook a comprehensive GIS analysis of all the hoards and field surveys of a sample of them.Trade ReviewThe online database is here analysed with informative maps, diagrams and tables, seeking answers to what, when, where and why. * British Archaeology *Filled with maps, graphs, and imagies of both spectacular and not-so-spectacular hoards, this is clearly an ambitious piece of work and should be considerd essential reading for anyone interested in the phenomenon. * Current Archaeology *Altogether the work is an exceptional illustration of the successes that digital approaches to the ancient world can produce. Bland, Chadwick, Ghey, and Haselgrove deserve the highest praise for their contributions to hoard studies and for advancing understanding of the complexities of Iron Age and Roman Britain. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *The presentation is excellent and the treatment of the subject is comprehensive and exhaustive...sets a model for other studies from other periods and for this alone the team who have produced this volume are to be thanked and congratulated. * Archaeologia Cambrensis - Cambrian Archaeological Association *Table of ContentsForeword 1. Introduction 2. Overview and analysis of the dataset 3. Theories of Hoarding and Deposition 4. National and regional patterns in the landscape settings of coin hoards 5. Analysis of excavated hoards 6. Coin hoards as archaeological objects: material and context 7. Coin hoards and society: chronological syntheses 8. Coin hoards and society: debating the third century: crisis or continuity? 9. Summary and conclusionsBibliographyIndex

    10 in stock

    £77.29

  • The Social Context of Technology: Non-ferrous

    Oxbow Books The Social Context of Technology: Non-ferrous

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Social Context of Technology explores non-ferrous metalworking in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2500 BC to 1st century AD). Bronze-working dominates the evidence, though the crafting of other non-ferrous metals – including gold, silver, tin and lead – is also considered. Metalwork has long played a central role in accounts of European later prehistory. Metals were important for making functional tools, and elaborate decorated objects that were symbols of prestige. Metalwork could be treated in special or ritualised ways, by being accumulated in large hoards or placed in rivers or bogs. But who made these objects? Prehistoric smiths have been portrayed by some as prosaic technicians, and by others as mystical figures akin to magicians. They have been seen both as independent, travelling ‘entrepreneurs’, and as the dependents of elite patrons. Hitherto, these competing models have not been tested through a comprehensive assessment of the archaeological evidence for metalworking.This volume fills that gap, with analysis focused on metalworking tools and waste, such as crucibles, moulds, casting debris and smithing implements. The find contexts of these objects are examined, both to identify places where metalworking occurred, and to investigate the cultural practices behind the deposition of metalworking debris.The key questions are: what was the social context of this craft, and what was its ideological significance? How did this vary regionally and change over time? As well as elucidating a key aspect of later prehistoric life in Britain and Ireland, this important examination by leading scholars contributes to broader debates on material culture and the social role of craft.Trade Review...a scholarly work, good reference book, and a great read. * Current World Archaeology *Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age, c 2500–1700 BC Chapter 3: Later Bronze Age and earliest Iron Age, c 1700–600 BC Chapter 4: Iron Age, c. 600 BC–1st century AD Chapter 5: Discussion Appendices Catalogues of finds of metalworking equipment from different periods. Bibliography Index

    10 in stock

    £42.42

  • Art in the Archaeological Imagination

    Oxbow Books Art in the Archaeological Imagination

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe present volume shows the archaeological thinking as a form of art, revealing the poetics of the archaeological imagination. It shows that, in their work, archaeologists, without being inspired by contemporary artists, use creative methods, and their analysis of the art of the Past goes beyond the material culture of the art objects, into the realm of the mental processes of creation. Consequently, the purpose of this book is to present the archaeological research functioning as a sort of artistic creation, proposing new perspectives on the archaeological imagination. It offers an exploration of the creative processes, the possibility of finding inspiration in experientiality, and the approach to the act of creation as a subject for archaeological research. When analysing the art of the Past, or when using art methods to approach the Past, we are facing an act of creation where imagination, emotion, and creativity combine under the form of an experiential instrument of investigation. The book offers a vision of archaeological research, a means to understand the complexity of the human nature, and consequently, to approach the human thinking structured on similarity and symbolism, being able to detect cultural and psychological subjects ignored until today, and, at the same time, to offer a series of visions of art, seen from the perspective of archaeology.Table of ContentsContributors Introduction Dragoş Gheorghiu 1. Reveries and representations of the magic of being Roberta Robin Dods 2. Catching the ephemeral – aesthetics of artful artefacts. A Middle Stone Age Still Bay bifacial pointed stone tool from Blombos Cave, South Africa and a Migration Period brooch from Kvåle in Sogn, Norway Torill Christine Lindstrøm 3. The importance of the anthropological approach in archaeology: The example of prehistoric acoustic studies Iegor Reznikoff 4. Replicating the prehistoric artisan’s mindset Jacqui Wood 5. Pathways Timothy Darvill and Elizabeth Poraj-Wilczynska 6. Art in the corporal memory and in the mental imagery Dragoş Gheorghiu 7. Modernity and landscape through art: Deconstructing the mindset of British contemporary artist James Lawrence Isherwood George Nash 8. The demography of prehistoric artists Ezra Zubrow

    10 in stock

    £36.00

  • Grave Disturbances: The Archaeology of

    Oxbow Books Grave Disturbances: The Archaeology of

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisArchaeologists excavating burials often find that they are not the first to disturb the remains of the dead. Graves from many periods frequently show signs that others have been digging and have moved or taken away parts of the original funerary assemblage. Displaced bones and artefacts, traces of pits, and damage to tombs or coffins can all provide clues about post-burial activities.The last two decades have seen a rapid rise in interest in the study of post-depositional practices in graves, which has now developed into a new subfield within mortuary archaeology. This follows a long tradition of neglect, with disturbed graves previously regarded as interesting only to the degree they revealed evidence of the original funerary deposit.This book explores past human interactions with mortuary deposits, delving into the different ways graves and human remains were approached by people in the past and the reasons that led to such encounters. The primary focus of the volume is on cases of unexpected interference with individual graves soon after burial: re-encounters with human remains not anticipated by those who performed the funerary rites and constructed the tombs. However, a first step is always to distinguish these from natural and accidental processes, and methodological approaches are a major theme of discussion.Interactions with the remains of the dead are explored in eleven chapters ranging from the New Kingdom of Egypt to Viking Age Norway and from Bronze Age Slovakia to the ancient Maya. Each discusses cases of re-entries into graves, including desecration, tomb re-use, destruction of grave contents, as well as the removal of artefacts and human remains for reasons from material gain to commemoration, symbolic appropriation, ancestral rites, political chicanery, and retrieval of relics. The introduction presents many of the methodological issues which recur throughout the contributions, as this is a developing area with new approaches being applied to analyze post-depositional processes in graves.Trade ReviewThe volume is a must for all those with an interest in funerary archaeology: disturbed remains, previously largely ignored or viewed as insignificant, can be considered with fresh eyes – a paradigm has been shifted. * Current World Archaeology *This is an excellent reference and resource for advanced students and professional scholars interested in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. * CHOICE *Table of Contents1. The archaeology of post-depositional interactions with the dead. An introduction Edeltraud Aspöck, Alison Klevnäs and Nils Müller-Scheeßel 2. Unruly bones and efficacious stones. Materialities of death in Early Christian post-burial interactions in central eastern Sweden Fredrik Fahlander 3. Grave disturbance in early medieval Poland Leszek Gardeła 4. Disturbed relatives. Post-burial practices among the Nomadic Khazars of the Lower Volga (7th-8th centuries CE) Irina Shingiray 5. Things we knew about grave robbery: reassessing ideas on how and why graves were reopened in the Merovingian period Stephanie Zintl 6. Disturbance of early medieval graves in southwestern Gaul. Taphonomy, burial reopening and the reuse of graves Yves Gleize 7. What happened at Langeid? Understanding reopened graves after time has taken its toll Camilla C. Wenn 8. Iron Age ancestral bonds. Consecutive burials and manipulated graves in the Dürrnberg cemeteries (Austria) Holger Wendling 9. Disturbing the dead. Reopening of stone cists in the Macedonian Gevgelija and Valandovo plains Daniela Heilmann 10. In search of the modus operandi. Reopenings of Early Bronze Age burials at Fidvár near Vráble, southwest Slovakia Nils Müller-Scheeßel, Jozef Bátora, Julia Gresky, Samantha Reiter, Kerstin Stucky and Knut Rassmann 11. Disturbance of graves among the ancient Maya Estella Weiss-Krejci 12. ‘It was found that the thieves had violated them all’. Grave disturbance in Late New Kingdom Thebes David A. Aston

    10 in stock

    £68.64

  • Rome and the North-Western Mediterranean:

    Oxbow Books Rome and the North-Western Mediterranean:

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisTo date, Rome’s intervention to the West from the mid-2nd century BC has not really been looked at with any sense of overview. Instead, there has been an unconnected series of micro-regional studies looking at particular areas, from the River Ebro in Spain round to Italy on the land front, and from the Balearic Islands to Corsica, Sardinia and even Sicily as regards the seaborne aspect. In contrast, this volume pushes the historical and archaeological debates about Romesize=2>’s expansion beyond these traditional geographical boundaries and the discipline-based previous research.The entire north-western Mediterranean is treated as a micro-region and is addressed using various interdisciplinary approaches. The result is to provide an innovative and comprehensive overview of the north-western Mediterranean in a period of historical crossroads, aided particularly by focusing on the connectivity and integration within this region as two interrelated issues. While Republican Rome enforced itself as an expansive power towards the West, all sorts of polities, military operations and individuals also played a significant role in creating interconnectivity and integration of the north-western Mediterranean into a new hybrid reality. In order to uncover such processes of hybridisation, contributors to this volume were encouraged to focus on the historical, archaeological and numismatic material from several areas within the region, and to incorporate aspects of interdisciplinary methodologies in order to address the region’s military, political, social and economic interconnections with Italy, Rome and each other within the overall period.Table of ContentsList of contributors Introduction: The Agency of Integration and Connectivity in the North-Western Mediterranean Toni Ñaco del Hoyo, Jordi Principal and Mike Dobson ROME, ITALY AND THE WEST 1. Rome and the Western Mediterranean (150–70 BC): Empire and War François Cadiou 2. Non-Roman Coins in Italy: the Influence of Western Connections (3rd–1st Centuries BC) Marleen K. Termeer 3. Military Connectivity between Romans and non-Romans in the West Fernando Quesada 4. Transactions, Trading Practices and Structures in the Western Mediterranean: the Impact of Roman Hegemony Alexis Gorgues 5. Ligurians, Gatekeepers of the West 197–118 BC Gerard R. Ventós and Gerard Cabezas-Guzmán HISPANIA CITERIOR AND TRANSALPINE GAUL 6. Initial Indications of a Roman Presence East of the Pyrenees: a Possible Transition Zone between Gaul and Iberia in the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BC Étienne Roudier, Ingrid Dunyach and Jerôme Bénézet 7. Numantia. A Green and Pleasant Land. Not once the Romans arrived! Mike Dobson 8. Trading Networks in Transalpine Gaul before and after the Conquest of 125 BC Corinne Sanchez 9. Late Iron Age .Iberians from Coastal North-Eastern Hispania and Rome Josep Burch, Ana Costa, Neus Coromina, Josep M. Nolla, Lluís Palahí, Marc Prat, Jordi Sagrera, Josefina Simon, David Vivó and Jordi Vivo 10. Late Iron Age Iberians and Rome in the Segre Valley (North-East Hispania): Transformation and Integration Ignasi Garcés and Borja Martín 11. Tolosa Tectosagum: a Wide-Ranging Connectivity Hub between Transalpine Gaul, Aquitania and Hispania Citerior Pierre Moret 12. Coinage from North-East Hispania Citerior and Rome, c. 150–70 BC Marta Campo 13. A Fistful of Denarii. Coinage, Conquest and Connectivity in Southern Gaul (c. 150–c. 70 BC) Eneko Hiriart and Charles Parisot-Sillon SEABORNE CONNECTIVITY 14. Shipwrecks and Trade in the North-Western Mediterranean during the Third and Second Centuries BC: the Sea as an Agent of Connectivity Franca Cibecchini 15. Emporion and its Port during the Second Century BC Pere Castanyer, Marta Santos, Joaquim Tremoleda and Elisa 16. Exploring the ‘Cultural Revolution’ in Ancient Sicily between Hellenisation and Romanisation: a Reassessment Daniele Malfitana 17. Between Carthage and Rome: Artisans, Businessmen and Colonists in Roman Republican Sardinia (150–50 BC) Antonio Ibba 18. Rome and the Political Dimension of Piracy in the North-Western Mediterranean Alfonso Álvarez-Ossorio 19. Between Traders and Pirates. Connectivity in the Balearic Islands from the Second Punic War to the Mid-First Century BC Bartomeu Vallori-Márquez 20. Rome and the North–Western Mediterranean: Ports-of-Call and Sea Routes Gerard Cabezas-Guzmán and Gerard R. Ventós EPILOGUE 21. The Roman and Italian Economic Diaspora as a Factor of Connectivity between Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean, 150–70 BC Sophia Zoumbaki and Michalis Karambinis 22. A Message in a Bottle Crossing the North-Western Mediterranean Jordi Principal and Toni Ñaco del Hoyo Index

    Out of stock

    £999.99

  • Highhays, Kilkenny: A Medieval Pottery Production

    Oxbow Books Highhays, Kilkenny: A Medieval Pottery Production

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis richly illustrated book presents the first comprehensive study of the making and marketing of pottery in medieval Ireland. Focusing on a well-preserved 14th-century pottery production centre which was excavated in 2006 at Highhays, outside the walls of the renowned Anglo-Norman town of Kilkenny in south-east Ireland, the authors describe its kiln, workshops and working areas, as well as its ‘Highhays Ware’ products: jugs, jars, cooking-pots, money-boxes and ridge tiles.Foremost amongst the outputs from the kiln site were high-quality, wheel-thrown, green-glazed jugs that were closely modelled on French Saintonge and Bristol Redcliffe archetypes and the volume describes the distinctive processes, kiln-firing technology and raw materials that were employed to produce these, and the other wares, represented on the site. The book also presents the results of an innovative plasma spectrometry and petrological analysis of Highhays Ware, which facilitated identification of the source for the raw potting clays areas – located at a considerable distance from Highhays in north county Kilkenny – used in its production, in addition to allowing for a study of the uncharacteristically broad distribution of the ware throughout the south-east of Ireland. The authors also place the production of pottery at Highhays in its broader context by presenting an overall review of the archaeological and historical evidence for pottery making and consumption in medieval Ireland, as well as by exploring the cultural background and social status of potters in the Anglo-Norman colony. Supporting the analysis and interpretation of the Highhays site and its assemblage are specialist and scientific contributions on the pottery, tiles, ceramic production material, metal finds, coins and archaeobotanical and animal bone remains from the site, archaeomagnetic and radiocarbon dating and plasma spectrometry and petrological analysis.Trade ReviewThis book is well illustrated throughout and provides an informative overview of Medieval Kilkenny * Ulster Archaeological Society *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of figures List of tables Authors and contributors Note on conventions Archaeological excavation archive Abbreviations Preface Foreword Summary 1. Introduction, by Emma Devine and Cóilín Ó Drisceoil 2. The pottery production centre excavations (Area 1, Period 1), by Emma Devine, Cóilín Ó Drisceoil and Niamh Curtin 3. Bake-yard excavations (Area 2, Period 1), abandonment and subsequent land-use (Areas 1 and 2, Periods 2 and 3), by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil 4. The products of the Highhays pottery, by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, Clare McCutcheon and Joanna Wren 5. Highhays Ware, a provenance and distribution study, by Niamh Curtin, Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, Michael J. Hughes and Richard Unitt 6. Non-ceramic finds, by Órla Scully, Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, Joe Norton, Jimmy Lenehan and Paul Rondelez 7. Archaeobotanical and charcoal analysis, by Mary Dillon and Ingelise Stuijts 8. Highhays and the archaeology of medieval pottery production and town suburbs in Ireland, by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Bibliography Appendix 1: Archaeomagnetic dating of the pottery kiln at Highhays, Kilkenny, by Vassil Karloukovski and Mark W. Hounslow Appendix 2: Radiocarbon dates Appendix 3: Post-medieval pottery, by Clare McCutcheon Appendix 4: Post-medieval clay building material, by Joanna Wren Appendix 5: Animal bone, by Karin Ilseth Appendix 6: Disarticulated human remains, by Karin Ilseth

    10 in stock

    £73.70

  • Defining Spaces in Iron Age Northumberland:

    Oxbow Books Defining Spaces in Iron Age Northumberland:

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Iron Age settlements excavated by Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd at Morley Hill and Lower Callerton lie within the rich later prehistoric landscape of the Northumberland coastal plain. This monograph presents the results of the excavation, specialist analyses and provides a key dataset upon which to discuss regionally and nationally important later prehistoric research themes. The excavations at Morley Hill and Lower Callerton offer two large-scale new datasets to compare within the corpus of enclosed Iron Age settlement sites across the region, allowing for an increased understanding of settlement patterns, architectural forms and farming practices. These include settlement development, longevity and tempo; the relationship between lowland and upland sites; settlement organisation and identity; roundhouse architecture and the impact of contact with the Roman world.At Morley Hill, work revealed two later Iron Age settlements defined by rectilinear enclosures surrounding groups of roundhouses with evidence for earlier phases of activity. The settlements at Morley Hill are comparable to many such distinctive settlements identified across the region and explored in recent years largely through developer-funded excavations. Lower Callerton represents a less explored form of extensive settlement with the excavation revealing evidence of earlier prehistoric activity overlain by a large Iron Age enclosure with over 53 structures, multiple sub-enclosures and boundaries. Comprehensive Bayesian modelling at Lower Callerton has provided a robust chronological framework indicating complex and continual settlement development from the middle Iron Age. The implications of this in terms of wider settlement development, tempo and longevity are explored. While the volume focuses on the Iron Age, the identification and influence of earlier prehistoric activity is also explored. The discussion is again enhanced by the programme of radiocarbon dating and isotopic analysis of cereal grains from Neolithic pits at Lower Callerton.Table of ContentsList of figures List of tables Acknowledgements 1. Introduction 2. Earlier prehistoric activity at Morley Hill and Lower Callerton 3. The Iron Age settlements at Morley Hill 4. The Iron Age settlements at Lower Callerton 5. Discussion Bibliography

    10 in stock

    £38.00

  • From House Societies to States: Early Political

    Oxbow Books From House Societies to States: Early Political

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe organisation and characteristics of early and ancient states have become the focus of a renewed interest from archaeologists, ancient historians and anthropologists in recent years. On the one hand, neo-evolutionary schemas of political transformation find it difficult to define some of their most basic concepts, such as ‘chiefdom’, ‘complex chiefdom’ and ‘state’, not to mention the transition between them. On the other hand, teleological interpretations based on linear dynamics, from less to increasingly more complex political structures, in successive steps, impose biased and too rigid views on the available evidence. In fact, recent research stresses the existence of other forms of socio-political organisation, less vertically integrated and more heterarchical, that proved highly successful and resilient in the long term in tying together social groups. What is more, such forms quite often represented the basic blocks on which states were built and that managed to survive once states collapsed. Finally, nomadic, maritime and mountain populations provide fascinating examples of societies that experienced alternative forms of political organisation, sometimes on a seasonal basis. In other cases, their consideration as ‘marginal’ populations that cultivated specialised skills ensured them a certain degree of autonomy when living either within or at the borders of states.This book explores such small-scale socio-political organisations, their potential and the historical trajectories they stimulated. A selection of historical case studies from different regions of the world may help rethink current concepts and views about the emergence and organisation of political complexity and the mechanisms that prevented, occasionally, the emergence of solid polities. They may also cast some light over trajectories of historical transformation, still poorly understood as are the limits of effective state power. This book explores the importance of comparative research and long-term historical perspectives to avoid simplistic interpretations, based on the characteristics of modern Western states abusively used retrospectively.Table of ContentsContributors 1. From house societies to states: An introduction Juan Carlos Moreno García 2. The great houses of Mesopotamia: tripartite houses and the formation of the City State Pascal Butterlin 3. Egalitarism, hierarchy, heterarchy and homoarchy: which evidence for the Indus Valley Civilization? Massimo Vidale 4. Houses, regions and state(s): Multiple political experiences in pharaonic Egypt Juan Carlos Moreno García 5. Communities, ‘houses’, and political organization in the Mycenaean world Dimitri Nakassis 6. Emergence and legitimation of princely authority in the Early Bronze Age of Central Germany Harald Meller 7. Neighbourhoods as ‘house societies’ in ancient Teotihuacan, Central Mexico. Exclusionary organizations in a corporate social and political environment Linda Manzanilla 8. House Societies and the Classic Maya: An Epigraphic View James L. Fitzsimmons 9. Gathering Salinar houses: Platforms-as-assemblages in ancient coastal Peru David Chicoine & Jacob Warner 10. Communities, urbanism and state building in the Lake Chad region Carlos Magnavita & Scott MacEachern 11. Negotiating visions of the house in West Africa: From dispersed agricultural communities to alternative complexities to the state Stephen Dueppen 12. Early Medieval state formation: A view from two peripheries Julio Escalona Monge 13. Trading polities and “sea people” of maritime southeast Asia Bérénice Bellina

    10 in stock

    £68.74

  • Cyprus in the Long Late Antiquity: History and

    Oxbow Books Cyprus in the Long Late Antiquity: History and

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisCyprus was a thriving and densely populated late antique province. Contrary to what used to be thought, the Arab raids of the mid-seventh century did not abruptly bring the island’s prosperity to an end. Recent research instead highlights long-lasting continuity in both urban and rural contexts. This volume brings together historians and archaeologists working on diverse aspects of Cyprus between the sixth and eighth centuries. They discuss topics as varied as rural prosperity, urban endurance, artisanal production, civic and private religion and maritime connectivity. The role of the imperial administration and of the Church is touched upon in several contributions. Other articles place Cyprus back into its wider Mediterranean context. Together, they produce a comprehensive impression of the quality of life on the island in the long late antiquity.Table of Contents1. Cyprus between the sixth and eighth centuries Panayiotis Panayides and Ine Jacobs 2. Archaeology and the making of a Cypriot Late Antiquity Marcus Rautman CYPRUS IN BETWEEN EMPIRES 3. Cypriot hagiography and the Long Late Antiquity Young Richard Kim 4. The Arab invasions of Cyprus in the middle of the seventh century: the chronographical and epigraphic evidence revisited Evangelos Chrysos 5. Contextualising the tax tribute paid by Cypriots during the treaty centuries Georgios Deligiannakis 6. The prosopography of the Cypriot archbishops during the Long Late Antiquity: a reappraisal of the evidence presented in Byzantine Lead Seals from Cyprus Olga Karagiorgou 7. Cyprus and its sisters: reassessing the role of large islands at the end of the Long Late Antiquity (ca. 600–ca. 800) Luca Zavagno URBAN AND RURAL PERSPECTIVES 8. Cypriot cities at the end of Antiquity Panayiotis Panayides 9. Kourion in the Long Late Antiquity: a reassessment Pamela Armstrong and Guy Sanders 10. Cypriot church architecture of the Long Late Antiquity Richard Maguire 11. Long Late Antiquity in the Chrysochou Valley William Caraher and R. Scott Moore 12. A boom-bust cycle in Cyprus at the end of Antiquity: landscape perspectives for settlement transformation Athanasios K. Vionis PRODUCTION AND OBJECTS IN USE 13. Local sculptural production in Cyprus at the end of Antiquity: a challenging dating? Doria Nicolaou 14. Fighting the demons and invoking the saints: prolegomenon to a study of Christian ritual texts in late antique Cyprus Paweł Nowakowski 15. Mining and smelting copper in Cyprus in Late Antiquity Vasiliki Kassianidou 16. The material culture of daily living in late antique Cyprus: a view from the metal collections of the Department of Antiquities Eftychia Zachariou-Kaila CONCLUSION 17. The ‘fuzzy’ world of Cypriot Long Late Antiquity: continuity and disruption betwixt the global and local Jody Michael Gordon INDEX

    10 in stock

    £62.85

  • Breaking Images: Damage and Mutilation of Ancient

    Oxbow Books Breaking Images: Damage and Mutilation of Ancient

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisArchaeological remains are ‘fragmented by definition’: apart from exceptional cases, the study of the human past takes into account mainly traces, ruins, discards, and debris of past civilisations. It is rare that things have been preserved as they were originally made and conceived in the past. However, not all the ancient fragmentary objects were the ‘leftovers’ from the past. A noticeable portion of them was part and parcel of the ancient materiality already in the form of a fragment or damaged item. In 2000, John Chapman, with his volume Fragmentation in Archaeology, attracted the attention of scholars on the need to reconsider broken artefacts as the result of the deliberate anthropic process of physical fragmentation. The phenomenon of fragmentation can be thus explored with more outcomes for a category of objects that played an important role inside the society: the figurines. Due to their portability and size, figurines are particularly entangled and engaged in social, spatial, temporal, and material relations, and – more than other artefacts – can easily accommodate acts of embodiment and dismemberment. The act of creation symmetrically also involves the act of destruction, which in turn is another act of creation, since from the fragmentation comes a new entity with a different ontology. Breaking contains the paradigms of life: creation and reparation, destruction and regeneration.The scope of this volume is to search for traces of any voluntary and intentional fragmentation of ancient artefacts, creating, improving, and sharpening the methods and principles for a scientific investigation that goes beyond single author impression or sensitivity. The comparative lens adopted in this volume can allow the reader to explore different fields taken from ancient societies of how we can address, assess, detect, and even discuss the action of breaking and mutilation of ancient figurines.Table of ContentsContributors Preface At the dawn of a break: The agency of the damage 1. In the footsteps of Auguste Rodin: Fragmentation is not an end Gianluca Miniaci 2. The meaning of deliberate figurine fragmentation: Insights from the Old and New Worlds John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska Beyond ritual: When the whole cracks 3. In the beginning: Exploring integrity of anthropomorphic images in prehistoric Europe Elisabetta Starnini 4. When garbage is art: Broken ceramic figural objects from ancient Honduras Jeanne Lopiparo and Rosemary A. Joyce 5. Parts, not wholes: Long histories and negative space analysis Stacy Boldrick 6. Not whole yet holy: Some breakage rituals and their significance in Hinduism and other religions of India Urmi Chanda The materiality of the damage: Searching for the intentionality 7. Broken beyond repair. Reflections on the intentionality of breakage and its archaeological identification regarding Naqada period clay figurines Axelle Brémont 8. The materiality of the damage in the faience figurine corpus from late Middle Bronze Age Egypt (1800–1550 BC) Gianluca Miniaci 9. Breaking into pieces: An experimental investigation into fracture behaviours in ceramic female figurines Paulina Wandowicz 10. Intentionality in the breaking. A case study of intentional damaging of figurines at Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad (Syria) and Çatalhöyük (Turkey) Monique Arntz 11. Fragmented or intact – Mycenaean figurines and figures in cult and burial contexts Ann-Louise Schallin Inside the fragmentation: Exploring methods and technologies 12. Made it for breaking it? Assessing fragmentation of the Lahun figurines (Egypt, MBA II, c. 1800–1700 BC) Vanessa Forte 13. Displaying the fragmented: Damaged and mutilated ancient Egyptian figures from Sir Charles Nicholson’s collection Candace Richards and Michelle F. Whitford 14. Broken collections: A 3D approach to the digital reunification and holistic study of dispersed terracotta figurines assemblages Valentina Vassallo Concluding remarks Afterword: Strong at the broken places? Caitlín Eilís Barrett

    10 in stock

    £72.26

  • Commemorating Classical Battles: A Landscape

    Oxbow Books Commemorating Classical Battles: A Landscape

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis is a study of the commemoration of Classical Greek battles, approaching monuments and other mnemonic practices as vital elements in the creation and curation of memories. It analyses the diachronic development of battlefield, sanctuary, and city spaces, as evidenced by archaeological remains and ancient literary sources. In addition, it explores the experience of the commemorative spaces through the application of theories of space, phenomenology, and social memory. Following a biographical approach, the commemoration of each battle is organised into stages of initial commemoration, official monumentalisation, memory curation, memory lapse, and reception.The research has led to several conclusions. While the commemoration of each battle can be divided into stages, these stages are not always discrete. There is variation in the types of commemorations within the stages, dependent on time, surrounding space, and the parties involved. Single commemorations can resonate differently with multiple audiences. The processes within the stage of memory curation lead to the subsequent lapse. The final stage of commemoration for each battle begins with the rediscovery of ancient monuments and continues to this day.The battles of Marathon, Leuktra, and Chaironeia are case studies for three reasons. First, they effectively span the period of Classical Greece (Marathon in 490 BCE to Chaironeia in 338 BCE). Secondly, these battles had different participants, thus allowing a variety of perspectives of both the victorious and the defeated. Lastly, these were battles that left lasting impacts in the material and literary record, making their commemoration relevant not only in antiquity, but also in the modern world.Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. The Battlefield of Marathon 3. The Battlefield of Leuktra 4. The Battlefield of Chaironeia 5. The Commemoration of Classical Battles in Extramural Sanctuaries 6. The Commemoration of Classical Battles in City Spaces 7. Conclusion

    10 in stock

    £61.68

  • Objects of Daily Use

    Oxbow Books Objects of Daily Use

    10 in stock

    10 in stock

    £32.26

  • Revisiting Grooved Ware: Understanding Ceramic Trajectories in Britain and Ireland, 3200–2400 cal BC

    Oxbow Books Revisiting Grooved Ware: Understanding Ceramic Trajectories in Britain and Ireland, 3200–2400 cal BC

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisFollowing its appearance, arguably in Orkney in the 32nd century cal BC, Grooved Ware soon became widespread across Britain and Ireland, seemingly replacing earlier pottery styles and being deposited in contexts as varied as simple pits, passage tombs, ceremonial timber circles and henge monuments. As a result, Grooved Ware lies at the heart of many ongoing debates concerning social and economic developments at the end of the 4th and during the first half of the 3rd millennia cal BC.Stemming from the 2022 Neolithic Studies Group autumn conference, and following on from Cleal and MacSween’s 1999 NSG volume on Grooved Ware, this book presents a series of papers from researchers specializing in Grooved Ware pottery and the British and Irish Neolithic, offering both regional and thematic perspectives on this important ceramic tradition. Chapters cover the development of Grooved Ware in Orkney as well as the timing and nature of its appearance, development, and subsequent demise in different regions of Britain and Ireland. In addition, thematic papers consider what Grooved Ware can contribute to understandings of inter-regional interactions during the earlier 3rd millennium cal BC, the possible meaning of Grooved Ware’s decorative motifs, and the thorny issue of the validity and significance of the various Grooved Ware sub-styles.The book will be of great value not only to archaeologists and students with a specific interest in Grooved Ware pottery but also to those with a more general interest in the development of the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland.Table of ContentsForeword List of contributors 1. Introduction: connected Grooved Ware worlds Mike Copper and Alasdair Whittle 2. Grooved Ware in Orkney Alison Sheridan 3. Skara Brae: the significance of the Grooved Ware assemblages Ann MacSween and David V. Clarke 4. Scottish Grooved Ware beyond Orkney Mike Copper 5. Grooved Ware in northern England since 2000 Sarah Botfield and Gill Hey 6. Grooved Ware from Wales Francis Lynch 7. Land of milk and honey? Grooved Ware use in Neolithic Wales Lilly Olet, Richard Evershed and Jessica Smyth 8. Grooved Ware in Ireland Eoin Grogan and Helen Roche 9. Niche bunching and the Inland Sea: Grooved Ware settlement at Over, Cambridgeshire, and River Great Ouse distributions Chris Evan, Joshua Pollard and Jonathan Tabor 10. The only way isn’t Essex, but it may be one of them…: Grooved Ware, Beakers and long-distance connections in southern Britain Joshua Pollard and Rosamund Cleal 11. Between Essex and Wessex Alistair Barclay 12. Recent Grooved Ware discoveries from Bulford and other sites in southern Wiltshire Elina Brook 13. Grooved Ware in south-east England: social geographies, chronology and interpretation Paul Garwood 14. Grooved Ware in the south-west peninsula Andy M. Jones and Henrietta Quinnell 15. Comments on Grooved Ware from a bemused sceptic: questions of classification and terminology, dating and interpretation David V. Clarke 16. Grooved Ware in Britain and Ireland, 2023: retrospect and prospect Alison Sheridan

    10 in stock

    £54.32

  • Journal of Roman Pottery Studies Volume 21

    Oxbow Books Limited Journal of Roman Pottery Studies Volume 21

    1 in stock

    a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

    1 in stock

    £40.50

  • Jerusalem Throne Games: The battle of Bible

    Oxbow Books Jerusalem Throne Games: The battle of Bible

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisJerusalem Throne Games explores the political battle for power to succeed David expressed through selected stories from the beginning of the Book of Genesis. In these confrontations, combatants wielded a new weapon of war that was changing the course of human history, the alphabet prose narrative. With this weapon, competing factions battled for throne not with the blog, the op ed, the tweet or the essay, but through storytelling. In this book six of those stories from Gen. 4-11 are analysed through the lens of the succession of Solomon and the collapse of his kingdom. These stories are identified as “son” stories or supplements to the existing alphabet narrative from the time of David. They were written by the various factions or priesthoods vying for power and are political in nature. Each story, the Sons of Cain, the Sons of Seth, the Sons of God, the Sons of Noah, the Son of Cush (Nimrod), and the Sons of men (Tower of Babel), is reviewed through selected commentaries from ancient times to the leading ones of the 20th century. These tensions raised highlight the need to revise the Documentary Hypothesis, the traditional scholarly approach for understanding the writing of these stories. A new Documentary Hypothesis is proposed for the writer known as J, the traditional author of these six stories. It presents the creation of supplemental and interactive writing by the Levites, Zadokites, and Aaronids who battled for power to name, dominate, and influence the person on the throne. The story of Jerusalem throne games began with the death of David and continued for centuries. The goal in this book is to understand the creation and meaning of those stories in their original political context in the time of Solomon.Trade Review...an excellent resource for students just entering the field. Ultimately, regardless of whether one finds Feinman’s answer to “Who wrote the Bible?” convincing, he has done us all a great pedagogical favor with this book. * Journal of Bible and Theology *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Documentary Hypothesis Part I: Interpreting the Stories Chapter 1 The Battlefield Stories Chapter 2 Sons of Cain Chapter 3 Sons of Seth Chapter 4 Sons of God Chapter 5 Sons of Noah Chapter 6 Nimrod, Son of Cush Chapter 7 Tower of Babel, Sons of Men Chapter 8 Setting the Jerusalem Stage Part II: Writing the Stories Chapter 9 The J Documentary Hypothesis Chapter 10 Zadok, Jebusite J Chapter 11 Abiathar, Shiloh J Chapter 12 Phinehas, Mesopotamia J Chapter 13 Ahijah, Prophet J Conclusion: Redacting the Js

    7 in stock

    £30.00

  • Antiquarianisms: Contact, Conflict, Comparison

    Oxbow Books Antiquarianisms: Contact, Conflict, Comparison

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisAntiquarianism and collecting have been associated intimately with European imperial and colonial enterprises, although both existed long before the early modern period and both were (and continue to be) practiced in places other than Europe. Scholars have made significant progress in the documentation and analysis of indigenous antiquarian traditions, but the clear-cut distinction between “indigenous” and “colonial” archaeologies has obscured the intense and dynamic interaction between these seemingly different endeavours. This book concerns the divide between local and foreign antiquarianisms focusing on case studies drawn primarily from the Mediterranean and the Americas. Both regions host robust pre-modern antiquarian traditions that have continued to develop during periods of colonialism. In both regions, moreover, colonial encounters have been mediated by the antiquarian practices and preferences of European elites. The two regions also exhibit salient differences. For example, Europeans claimed the “antiquities” of the eastern Mediterranean as part of their own, “classical,” heritage, whereas they perceived those of the Americas as essentially alien, even as they attempted to understand them by analogy to the classical world. These basic points of comparison and contrast provide a framework for conjoint analysis of the emergence of hybrid or cross-bred antiquarianisms. Rather than assuming that interest in antiquity is a human universal, this book explores the circumstances under which the past itself is produced and transformed through encounters between antiquarian traditions over common objects of interpretation.Trade Review[…] a collection of ten papers that approach the complex question of antiquarianism in a variety of ways. * Antiquity *Antiquarianisms is a significant contribution to current scholarship on antiquarian traditions. Not only does the volume add to Schnapp’s blueprint for comparing varying antiquarian practices, it also challenges its own goals and asks the reader to do the same in existing and future scholarship. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *...a demonstration of the historical dynamism within two discrete locales of antiquarian endeavour is very welcome, particularly as it underscores an important truth: that antiquarianism can provide a more conducive space to explore, in concert with people who are not specialists, the diverse connections between past and present. * European Journal of Archaeology *

    7 in stock

    £33.25

  • Ancient Egyptian Coffins: Past – Present – Future

    Oxbow Books Ancient Egyptian Coffins: Past – Present – Future

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis collection of papers by leading international experts on the subject of ancient Egyptian coffins, builds on a project based at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to study and record in detail its collection. Papers address a series of topics including: the development of coffins in antiquity, including iconographic and text-based studies, providing new insights into ancient Egyptian belief systems at different periods and regional differences in coffin presentation; the post-antiquity history of coffins, including their acquisition and subsequent treatment in museums around the world; developments in technical examination and methods of studying coffins, especially the use of multispectral imaging to provide non-invasive analysis of materials, and what this tells us about construction and decorative techniques at different periods and in response to the availability of different materials and increasing evidence of the re-use of materials and complete re-working of coffins for new owners, leading us to question fundamental attitudes to the purpose of coffins as a containers of human remains and the practices of craftsmen in the funerary industry. The papers stem from a conference held at the Museum to accompany a major new exhibition.Trade Review[T]hese studies superbly show how productive the concurrence of technical and art historical approaches in this emerging field of research has been […] it is fair to recognize the work carried out by the Editors in assuring a remarkable unity to the volume, despite the heterogeneity of the studies. * Bibliotheca Orientalis *Table of ContentsUta Siffert: Middle Kingdom mummy shaped coffins: investigating meaning and function Hans-Hubertus Münch: High class coffins? Some remarks on the black coffins of the Eighteenth Dynasty from KV40 Lisa Sartini: The black coffins with yellow decoration of the New Kingdom: an original iconographic study Carolina Teotino: The apotropaic entourage of Osiris: The protective genii on sarcophagi and coffins of the Late and the Graeco-Roman Periods Asja Müller: Contextualising Roman Mummy Masks: The Cambridge Collection Andrzej Niwinski : Coffins of the 21-22 Dynasties as a source of information about the sacred landscape of Western Thebes Raphaële Meffre: The funerary ensemble of a Libyan princess of the beginning of the Twenty- second Dynasty and the iconography of early Twenty-second Dynasty cartonnages P. Buscaglia, M. Cardinali, T. Cavaleri, P. Croveri, G. Ferraris di Celle, A. Piccirillo and F. Zenucchini: Nesimenjem and the Valley of the Queens’ Coffins Cynthia Sheikholeslami: A Libyan singer in the Karnak temple choir Fruzsina Bartos: Cartonnages with painted and moulded decoration from the Twenty-second Dynasty Susanna Moser :The coffin of the Anthropology Museum in Padua and the others: A peculiar type of Late to Ptolemaic Period wooden anthropoid coffins Yolanda de la Torre Robles: Late Period Coffins from Qubbet el-Hawa tomb 33 Marie Peterková Hlouchova: Late Period wooden coffins from Abusir Jonathan P. Elias and Carter Lupton: Regional Identification of Late Period Coffins from Northern Upper Egypt Katalin Kothay: On the dating problems of the coffins of Gamhud Lisa Bruno, Anna Serotta and Yekaterina Barbash: Ancient Egyptian Coffins at the Brooklyn Museum: New Insights on Manufacture, History and Treatment Patricia Rigault : The rediscovery and the restoration of the outer coffin of Tanetmit (Louvre N2588) – Twenty-second Dynasty Marco Nicola, Simone Musso and Simone Petacchi: Non-invasive diagnostic techniques in the authentication and study of Egyptian coffins: the case of the anthropoid coffin of Pakharw, son of Panehesy and the cartonnage of Asetirdis in the Stibbert Museum, Florence Eman H.Zidan, Mohamed Gamal Rashed and Sabah Abd el Razzik: The conservation of some “unknown” wooden coffins: Re-contextualizing archaeological context, technical examination and conservation approaches Caroline Cartwright: Identifying Egyptian coffin woods using scanning electron microscopy N.M.N. El Hadidi, S. Darwish, M. Ragab, H. Abd El Gaoudi, S. Abd El-Razik, M. Abd Elrahman and K. Attia: Beyond the Visible, Merging scientific analysis and Traditional methods for the documentation of the anthropoid coffin of Amenemhât T. Cavaleri, P. Buscaglia, M. Cardinali, M. Nervo, M. Pisani, P. Triolo and M. Zucco: Multi and hyperspectral imaging and 3D techniques for discovering Egyptian coffins Alessia Amenta: The restoration of the coffin of Butehamon: New points for reflection from the scientific investigations Nour Mohamed Badr, Mona Fouad Ali, Nesrin M.N. El Hadidi, Hanaa El-Gaoudi, Mohamed Abd El Rahman with Raphaële Meffre: Egyptological and non-destructive analytical study of a Ptolemaic wooden coffin lid from Abusir el-Meleq in The Egyptian Museum, Cairo Antje Zygalski: Coffin lid of an unidentified person from the end of the Third Intermediate Period/beginning of the Late Period: Observations on wood and construction. Kara Cooney: Different patterns of coffin reuse from the Twentieth to Twenty-second Dynasties John H. Taylor: Decoding ancient Egyptian coffins: the judgement of the dead and their eternal destiny.

    7 in stock

    £83.18

  • Looting or Missioning: Insular and Continental

    Oxbow Books Looting or Missioning: Insular and Continental

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisUntil now insular and continental material, mostly metal-work, found in pagan Viking Age graves in Norway, has been interpreted as looted material from churches and monasteries on the British Isles and the Continent. The raiding Vikings brought these objects back to their homeland where they were often broken up and used as jewellery or got alternative functions.Looting or Missioning looks at the use and functions of these sacred objects in their original Christian contexts. Based on such an analysis the author proposes an alternative interpretation of these objects: they were brought by Christian missionaries from different parts of the British Isles and the Continent to Norway. The objects were either personal (crosses, croziers, portable reliquaries etc.), objects used for baptism (hanging bowls), equipment to officiate a mass (mountings from books or reading equipment, altars or crosses) or to give the communion (pitchers, glass vessels, chalices, paten). We know from contemporary sources (Ansgar in Birka, Sweden in the ninth century) that missionaries brought this sort of equipment on their mission journeys. We also hear that missionaries were robbed, killed or chased off. Mikkelson interprets the sacred objects found in Viking Age pagan graves as objects that originate from the many unsuccessful mission attempts in Norway throughout the Viking Age. They changed function and were integrated in the pagan tradition.The conversion and Christianisation of Norway can thus be seen as a long-lasting process, at least from about 800 (but probably earlier) to the beginning of the eleventh century. As we must assume that the written sources on the subject are incomplete, the archaeological evidences are the main source. In addition to metal work and written sources, the dating and interpretation of stone crosses, rune stones, manuscript fragments and early Christian graves and churches are discussed. The main part of the manuscript regards the context of all these sources, studied in each part of Norway separately: Where do we find concentrations of objects that could support the interpretation of these being the result of mission attempts, and where can we combine archaeological and written sources to tentatively create more complete stories related to mission?One analysis is of special interest to British and Norwegian scholars and even a broader audience. It refers to the chieftain Ohthere from Northern Norway, who visited King Alfred the Great in Winchester in 890. The author finds a link between Alfred´s court and Ohthere´s farm which, it is argued, for was Borg at Vestvågøy, Lofoten, where the biggest Viking Age house in Northern Europe has been excavated. In the hall of this house were found a rare glass beaker with gold cross decorations, a Continental or British made pitcher, pieces of a bronze bowl and an æstel of gold. This last piece is only found in Northern Norway and in England, with Wessex and Mercia as the core areas. “The Alfred Jewel” (Ashmolean Museum) is also an æstel of the same main type, but much more splendid and with an inscription relating it to King Alfred. Mikkelson argues for a bishop being sent from Wessex and Alfred´s court on Ohthere´s ship back to Northern Norway as a missionary.Trade ReviewPresents a radical re-interpretation of insular material from Scandinavia … Well presented and beautifully illustrated. * Medieval Archaeology *Table of ContentsList of figures List of tables Part 1: Sources and models for missionary activity 1. Introduction The spread of Christianity in north-west Europe The change of religion in Norway – a long process, not a short event Written sources – archaeological sources Written sources to the missionary activity in Scandinavia during the Viking Age 2. Models for the missionary activity What is a mission? Model 1: Individual monks and priests as missionaries coming from The British Isles Model 2: Organized mission from the Frankish Empire and Germany – ‘the Ansgar model’ Model 3: Mission with the Norwegian kings as initiators Part 2: Tracing missionary activity in Norway based on material culture 3. Stone crosses ‘Celtic missioning’ ‘Anglian missioning’ German missioning Preliminary conclusions 4. The interpretation of insular metalwork in Norwegian Viking Age graves Sacred objects in early Christendom Secular objects of insular origin 5. Early Christian churches and graves 6. A geographical analysis of the Christianization process in Norway Western Norway The Kuli Stone at Kuløy, Edøy, Møre og Romsdal Middle Norway: Trøndelag Northern Norway Eastern Norway Contents Part 3: Summary and conclusions Bibliography Appendices A–L: Clerical objects A. Stone crosses from the Viking Age B. Croziers C. Reliquaries and shrine mountings D. Crosses and cross mountings E. Book-mountings and book-shrines F. Hanging bowls G. Bronze bowls: Doubtful and non-hanging bowls H. Bronze ladles with handle I. Bronze-covered wooden buckets J. Altar- and tabernacle mountings K. Chalices, patens and holy-water sprinkler L. Cross and crucifix amulets from the Viking Age (c. AD 900–1100) Appendices M–T: Secular objects M. Ring pins and brooches of insular origin N. Harness fittings, strap distributors and other horse fittings of insular origin O. Belt clasps, strap ends etc of insular and Carolingian origin P. Drinking horns and -mountings from the British Isles Q. Swords (mainly) from the British Isles R. Balance scales of insular origin S. Early Anglo-Saxon and Frankish coins T. Late Anglo-Saxon silver coins (tenth–eleventh century)

    7 in stock

    £59.35

  • Death and Changing Rituals: Function and meaning

    Oxbow Books Death and Changing Rituals: Function and meaning

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe forms by which a deceased person may be brought to rest are as many as there are causes of death. In most societies the disposal of the corpse is accompanied by some form of celebration or ritual which may range from a simple act of deportment in solitude to the engagement of large masses of people in laborious and creative festivities. In a funerary context the term ritual may be taken to represent a process that incorporates all the actions performed and thoughts expressed in connection with a dying and dead person, from the preparatory pre-death stages to the final deposition of the corpse and the post-mortem stages of grief and commemoration. The contributions presented here are focused not on the examination of different funerary practices, their function and meaning, but on the changes of such rituals – how and when they occurred and how they may be explained. Based on case studies from a range of geographical regions and from different prehistoric and historical periods, a range of key themes are examined concerning belief and ritual, body and deposition, place, performance and commemoration, exploring a complex web of practices.Trade ReviewThe volume’s success in bringing together the different contributions under a similar set of questions and approaches forms an admirable example of how to combine local studies to gain much wider relevance. I therefore would recommend the book to any academic or student interested in the study of death in the past. * American Journal Of Archaeology *All of the papers in this volume provide fascinating examples of the reasons for change in funerary practices over time, making it fascinating reading for anyone interested in the archaeology of death and burial. * Fortean Times *

    7 in stock

    £42.20

  • Karia and the Dodekanese: Cultural Interrelations

    Oxbow Books Karia and the Dodekanese: Cultural Interrelations

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisKaria and the Dodekanese, Vol. II, presents new research that highlights cultural interrelations and connectivity in the Southeast Aegean and western Asia Minor over a period of more than 700 years. Throughout antiquity, this region was a dynamic meeting place for eastern and western civilizations.Modern geographical limitations have been influential on both archaeological investigations and how we approach cultural relations in the region. Comprehensive and valuable research has been carried out on many individual sites in Karia and the Dodekanese, but the results have rarely been brought together in an attempt to paint a larger picture of the culture of this region. In antiquity, the sea did not constitute an obstacle to interaction between societies and cultures, but was an effective means of communication for the exchange of goods, sculptural styles, architectural form and embellishment, education, and ideas. It is clear that close relations existed between the Dodekanese and western Asia Minor during the Classical period (Vol. I), but these relations were evidently further strengthened under the shifting political influences of the Hellenistic kings, the Roman Empire, and the cosmopolitan late antique period. The contributions in this volume comprise investigations on urbanism, architectural form and embellishment, sculpture, pottery, and epigraphy.Trade ReviewThe diversity of approaches and evidence discussed is consistently stimulating, and the reader gains an insight into the range of projects and methodologies currently being applied to illuminate the entwinement of mainland Anatolia with the communities of the neighbouring islands. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

    7 in stock

    £63.25

  • The Excavations at Mut al-Kharab II: The Third

    Oxbow Books The Excavations at Mut al-Kharab II: The Third

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisFor over a century our knowledge of Egypt’s Western Desert during the Third Intermediate Period relied almost entirely on the Greater and Smaller Dakhleh Stelae. These two significant documents were purchased by Henry Lyons in 1894 in Dakhleh Oasis and indicated the existence of a substantial temple at Mut al-Kharab dedicated to the god Seth. Apart from these sources, very little information from the Western Desert could be dated to this period. Excavations at Mut al-Kharab began in 2000 and in recent years, evidence from the Third Intermediate Period temple has grown considerably. A range of artefacts has been unearthed, including decorated temple blocks, stelae, ostraka, in situ architectural remains, other small finds, and a large collection of well-dated ceramics. The scale of evidence suggests Mut al-Kharab was probably the most significant Third Intermediate Period site in the Western Desert.In light of this new material, a re-examination of activity in the Western Desert during this period has been possible. This volume presents all the available evidence relating to the western oases during the Third Intermediate Period, with a particular focus on the ceramics. Occupation appears to have been more widespread than the limited evidence previously suggested, and these oasis communities were closely connected to the populations in the Nile Valley. The Egyptian central administration continued to be interested in the Western Desert, although political control does not seem to have been consistent. Moreover, subtle yet distinct variations in the material record, including aspects of pottery traditions and religious practices, may reveal the existence of an oasis culture. As such, we are developing a much clearer picture of activity in this region.Table of ContentsCHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction A. New fieldwork and new material B. The Third Intermediate Period C. Regionality 1.2 Theoretical and Methodological Approach 1.3 Chapter outline CHAPTER 2: EVIDENCE FROM THE NILE VALLEY AND DELTA 2.1 Textual Sources 2.2 Ceramics 2.3 Chapter summary CHAPTER 3: THE TEMPLE AT MUT AL-KHARAB 3.1 Description of the site 3.2 History and exploration of the site 3.3 The Dakhleh Stelae 3.4 Evidence from Monash University’s excavations A. Decorated temple blocksB. Ostraka from Trench 38BC. Small finds from Trench 38BD. Clay seal impressions 3.5 Chapter summary CHAPTER 4: THE THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD POTTERY FROM MUT AL-KHARAB 4.1 Overview of the material 4.2 Fabrics and wares 4.3 Presentation and discussion of the material 4.4 The Third Intermediate Period pottery deposits A. West of the Temple B. The dump 4.5 Chapter summary CHAPTER 5: CONTEXTUALISING MUT AL-KHARAB: THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIODACTIVITY THROUGHOUT THE WESTERN DESERT 5.1 Dakhleh Oasis 5.2 Kharga Oasis 5.3 Theban Desert Road Survey 5.4 Bahriyya Oasis 5.5 Chapter summary CHAPTER 6: TYPOLOGY OF THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD OASIS CERAMICS 6.1 Wheel-made containers 6.2 Wheel-made non-containers 6.3 Hand-made containers 6.4 Chapter summary CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS 7.1 The Temple of Seth at Mut al-Kharab 7.2 The extent and nature of Third Intermediate Period activity throughout the Western Desert 7.3 The Egyptian state and the western oases 7.4 Regionality – the existence of an oasis culture 7.5 Future directions BIBLIOGRAPHY FIGURES PLATES TABLES APPENDIX 1: The Third Intermediate Period pottery from Mut al-Kharab

    7 in stock

    £61.82

  • Textiles in Ancient Mediterranean Iconography

    Oxbow Books Textiles in Ancient Mediterranean Iconography

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis volume provides an ambitious synopsis of the complex, colourful world of textiles in ancient Mediterranean iconography. A wealth of information on ancient textiles is available from depictions such as sculpture, vase painting, figurines, reliefs and mosaics. Commonly represented in clothing, textiles are also present in furnishings and through the processes of textile production. The challenge for anyone analysing ancient iconography is determining how we interpret what we see. As preserved textiles rarely survive in comparable forms, we must consider the extent to which representations of textiles reflect reality, and critically evaluate the sources. Images are not simple replicas or photographs of reality. Instead, iconography draws on select elements from the surrounding world that were recognisable to the ancient audience, and reveal the perceptions, ideologies, and ideas of the society in which they were produced. Through examining the durable evidence, this anthology reveals the ephemeral world of textiles and their integral role in the daily life, cult and economy of the ancient Mediterranean.Table of ContentsPreface Author biographies 1. Introduction: Approaching textiles in ancient Mediterranean iconography Cecilie Brøns, Susanna Harris, and Marta Żuchowska 2. Textile Production in Aegean Glyptic: Interpreting small-scale representations on seals and sealings from Bronze Age Greece Agata Ulanowska 3. Textiles and Iconography in the Bronze Age Aegean Scripts: tela logogram and the ligatured endogram te Rachele Pierini 4. Loom or Lyre: A dual reading of iconography from the Iron Age II site of Kunitllet ‘Ajrud Thaddeus Nelson 5. Abundance and Splendour: Textiles on Archaic Greek statues of young women (korai) Susanna Harris 6. The Color of Cult: Artemis Brauronia and the krokotos Daphne Martin 7. Furniture Textiles in Classical and Hellenistic Iconography Demi Andrianou 8. Ideology, Gender and Textile Production: The iconography of women in the Iberian Culture Riccardo Basso Rial 9. All that Glitters is Gold: Golden textiles in the ancient Mediterranean Cecilie Brøns 10. Arachne Revisited: Hubris and Technology in the Forum Transitorium Frieze, Rome Magdalena Öhrman 11. Fringed Clothing in Roman Iconography and Written Sources Kelly Olson 12. Between Realism and Artistic Convention: Woollen mantles in the iconography of Roman Palmyra Marta Żuchowska 13. Reading Dress and Identity in the Roman Mosaics of Carthage and Tabarka Amy Place 14. Epilogue Mary Harlow Glossary Index

    7 in stock

    £58.85

  • Remembering and Forgetting the Ancient City

    Oxbow Books Remembering and Forgetting the Ancient City

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Greco-Roman world is identified in the modern mind by its cities. This includes both specific places such as Athens and Rome, but also an instantly recognisable style of urbanism wrought in marble and lived in by teeming tunic-clad crowds. Selective and misleading this vision may be, but it speaks to the continuing importance these ancient cities have had in the centuries that followed and the extent to which they define the period in subsequent memory. Although there is much that is mysterious about them, the cities of the Roman Mediterranean are, for the most part, historically known. That the names and pasts of these cities remain known to us is the product of an extraordinary process of remembering and forgetting stretching back to antiquity that took place throughout the former Roman world. This volume tackles this subject of the survival and transformation of the ancient city through memory, drawing upon the methodological and theoretical lenses of memory studies and resilience theory to view the way the Greco-Roman city lived and vanished for the generations that separate the present from antiquity.This book analyses the different ways in which urban communities of the post-Antique world have tried to understand and relate to the ancient city on their own terms, examining it as a process of forgetting as well as remembering. Many aspects of the ancient city were let go as time passed, but those elements that survived, that were actively remembered, have shaped the many understandings of what it was. The volume assembles specialists in multiple fields to bring their perspectives to bear on the subject through eleven case studies that range from late Antiquity to the mid-20th century, and from the Iberian Peninsula to Iran. Through the examination of archaeological remains, changing urban layouts and chronicles, travel guides and pamphlets, they track how the ancient city was made useful or consigned to oblivion.Trade ReviewThe real power of this volume is that these changes through time are not seen as mistakes obfuscating a ‘true’ classical heritage in need of being saved from later accretions through excavation and correction, but as indicators of how thesemonuments and memories serve a dynamic role within successive generations’ cognitive maps of their environment. * Greece and Rome *Table of ContentsForeword: Andrew Wallace-Hadrill Introduction Sam Ottewill-Soulsby and Javier Martínez Jiménez Part 1. Resilient cCities 1. Resilient cities: Aspects of urban form and social function Louise Blanke (Edinburgh) and Alan Walmsley (Macquarie) 2. The Cities of Cassiodorus: The Resilience of Urban Values Andrew Wallace-Hadrill (Cambridge) 3. A fundamentis noviter: The Iidea of the Ancient cCity, the Ninth-Century Liber Pontificalis, and Civic Thought in Eearly Mmedieval Italy Thomas Langley (Cambridge) 4. The Resilience of the Late Antique City in Southern Gaul during the Romanesque Period Javier Martínez Jiménez (Cambridge) 5. Rome, Neapolis, and mModernity in late nineteenth-century Naples Sofia Greaves (Cambridge) 6. Prousa to Bursa: The Reinvention of an Ottoman Capital Suna Çagaptay (Cambridge) Part 2. Remembered Cities 7. Remembering the Rose Red City: Religion, pPilgrimage, and the Shaping of Byzantine Petra . Marlena Whiting (JGU Mainz) 8. ‘Hunting diligently through the volumes of the Ancients’: Frechulf of Lisieux on the First City and the End of Innocence Sam Ottewill-Soulsby (Cambridge) 9. Remembering the ancient Iranian city from Late Antiquity to Islam Edward Zychowicz-Coghill (Cambridge) 10. Traces of the Ancients: The pre-Islamic monuments of the Maghrib in the medieval Arabic geographical tradition Amira Bennison (Cambridge) 11. Rituals of memory at the Olympieion precinct of Athens Elizabeth Key Fowden Conclusion Javier Martínez Jiménez and Sam Ottewill-Soulsby

    7 in stock

    £62.26

  • Seventeenth-century Water Gardens and the Birth

    Oxbow Books Seventeenth-century Water Gardens and the Birth

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisBased on a decade of archaeological investigation and historical research, this book tells the story of the Copes of Hanwell Castle in north Oxfordshire and the creation of a garden with links to the development of scientific thinking in Oxford in the late seventeenth century. New research using Robert Plot’s Natural History of Oxfordshire as a starting point has uncovered details of a remarkable family and their rise and tragic downfall, their social circle, that included some great names in the development of early scientific thinking, and their garden that in effect became a place dedicated to the wonders of technology.The complex tale weaves together the activities of a royalist agent, Richard Allestree, a prodigious musician, Thomas Baltzar, John Claridge, a Hanwell Shepherd with a penchant for weather forecasting, and Sir Anthony Cope who in an atmosphere of secrecy and distrust began to gather together a community that eventually was named by Plot as The New Atlantis, a reference to a book published earlier in the century by Sir Francis Bacon in which he suggests a model for a Utopian science-focused society.The book also chronicles the programme of archaeological excavation that has uncovered several unusual garden features and, most significantly of all, describes in detail the unique collection of seventeenth-century terracotta garden urns, an assemblage that is unparalleled in post-medieval archaeology. This collection was destroyed in a single episode of vandalism around 1675 and has been preserved in deeply buried deposits of mud and silt. Their analysis and reconstruction is opening new insights into the decorative schemes of seventeenth-century gardens. There is coverage of other gardens of the period and their surviving features as well as an examination of early science and how gardens impacted on its development in many ways.Table of ContentsPreface: Robert Plot and Sir Anthony Cope 1. Introduction The Study of Gardens in Theory and Practice Hanwell: Geology, Geography, Archaeology and History 2. The Sixteenth Century William Cope and the Building of Hanwell House The Origins of Early Modern Water Gardens Water Gardens in the Sixteenth Century 3. The Seventeenth Century Continental Engineers and their Influence The Copes in Ascendancy Walter Cope’s Water Maze Francis Bacon, Gardening and The New Atlantis Thomas Bushell and the Enstone Marvels Other Early Seventeenth-Century Water Gardens 4. At Hanwell House The Archaeology of the Gardens 1600-1660 Sir Anthony Cope, the Fourth Baronet Sir Anthony Cope in his Social Setting Hanwell, Cope and Plot Sir Anthony’s Companions The Archaeology of the Gardens 1660-1675 Reconstructing the House of Diversion The Hanwell Pots and Other Finds 5. The End of it All The Aftermath, the Family and Estate after 1675 The Archaeology of the Gardens from 1675 to the Present Day 6. Oxford, Science and Gardening Oxford, Hanwell and Early Scientific Thinking Gardens and Science The Tangley Mystery and Hanwell as the New Atlantis Conclusions

    7 in stock

    £47.04

  • House of the Surgeon, Pompeii: Excavations in the

    Oxbow Books House of the Surgeon, Pompeii: Excavations in the

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe House of the Surgeon represents the first major publication of an important series of excavations undertaken by the Anglo-American Project in Pompeii (1994-2006) at the ancient city of Pompeii in a city block known as Insula VI 1. This is one of the largest, most comprehensive, and most important sub-surface, pre-79 AD excavations ever to have been undertaken at Pompeii. The methodology employed to the systematic examination of an entire city block, involving extensive artefact and ecofact recovery, using the latest scientific methods, has generated one of the single largest bodies of archaeological data ever produced on the development of ancient Pompeii, from the earliest traces of human habitation until its destruction. The first major section of this data is now made available in form of a study of the most famous and prominent of the houses on the block. The Casa del Chirurgo (House of the Surgeon) has been one of the most frequently cited houses in the ancient city since its discovery in 1771. The results of the exhaustive study of the house within its urban context not only challenge many of the conclusions of previous research, but also make it possible at last for this important property to contribute information to the full history of Pompeii’s urban development, illuminating the chronology of urban change, the processes involved in ancient domestic construction, aspects of the ancient environment, and changing socio-political and economic conditions within Italy throughout the middle to late Republic and early Empire.Trade Review…this is an excellent report, containing a wealth of new data expertly martialled, described and illustrated. * Antiquity *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Preface Foreword: The Old Certainties are Crumbling Rick Jones 1. Pompeii’s Insula VI 1 and the Casa del Chirurgo Michael A. Anderson and Damian Robinson 2. The Anglo-American Project in Pompeii Damian Robinson, Michael A. Anderson, H.E.M. Cool, Robyn Veal, and Charlene Murphy 3. Digging the Casa del Chirurgo Michael A. Anderson and Damian Robinson 4. The Stratigraphic and Structural Sequence of the Casa del Chirurgo Michael A. Anderson and Damian Robinson 5. Room by Room Discussion of Stratigraphy and Architecture Michael A. Anderson and Damian Robinson 6. Glass Vessels and Small Finds H. E. M. Cool 7. Report on the Coinage Recovered from the AAPP Excavations in the Casa del Chirurgo Richard Hobbs 8. Plaster Fragments from the Cisterns of the Casa del Chirurgo: a window onto the house’s lost decoration Helen White 9. Pavements of Mortar, Mosaic and Marble Inlay Will Wootton 10. The Faunal Remains Jane Richardson 11. Archaeobotanical Remains Charlene Murphy 12. Fuel and Timber in the Casa del Chirurgo Robyn Veal 13. The Ancient Campanian Environment and Results from the Casa del Chirurgo Robyn Veal and Charlene Murphy 14 Conclusions Michael A. Anderson Appendix I: Stratigraphic Unit Listing and Chapter 5 Concordance Appendix II: Harris Matrices for Areas Excavated Bibliography Index

    5 in stock

    £88.64

  • Palmyra after Zenobia AD 273-750: An

    Oxbow Books Palmyra after Zenobia AD 273-750: An

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis book casts light on a much neglected phase of the UNESCO world heritage site of Palmyra, namely the period between the fall of the Palmyrene ‘Empire’ (AD 272) and the end of the Umayyad dominion (AD 750).The goal of the book is to fill a substantial hole in modern scholarship - the late antique and early Islamic history of the city still has to be written.In late antiquity Palmyra remained a thriving provincial city whose existence was assured by its newly acquired role of stronghold along the eastern frontier. Palmyra maintained a prominent religious role as one of the earliest bishoprics in central Syria and in early Islam as the political centre of the powerful Banu Kalb tribe.Post-Roman Palmyra, city and setting, provide the focus of this book. Analysis and publication of evidence for post-Roman housing enables a study of the city’s urban life, including the private residential buildings in the sanctuary of Ba’alshamin. A systematic survey is presented of the archaeological and literary evidence for the religious life of the city in Late Antiquity and Early Islam. The city’s defences provide another focus. After a discussion of the garrison quartered in Palmyra, Diocletian’s military fortress and the city walls are investigated, with photographic and archaeological evidence used to discuss chronology and building techniques. The book concludes with a synthetic account of archaeological and written material, providing a comprehensive history of the settlement from its origins to the fall of Marwan II in 750 AD.Trade ReviewThe volume is an excellent reference for the archaeological remains themselves, and an important milestone in the trend towards understanding the historically neglected later phases of the monumental Classical sites of the Near East, as is being done for Jerash, Petra – and now, Palmyra. * Current World Archaeology *

    5 in stock

    £61.58

  • Interpreting Transformations of People and

    Oxbow Books Interpreting Transformations of People and

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn this volume of papers, deriving from two conferences held in Rome and Leicester in 2016, nineteen leading European archaeologists discuss and interpret the complex evolution of landscapes – both urban and rural – across Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (c. AD 300–700). The geographical coverage extends from Italy to the Mediterranean West through to the Rhine frontier and onto Hadrian’s Wall. Core are questions of impacts due to the socio-political, religious, military and economic transformations affecting provinces, territories and kingdoms across these often turbulent centuries: how did townscapes change and at what rate? What were the fates of villas? When do post-classical landscapes emerge and in what form? To what degree did Europe become an insecure, defended landscape? In what ways did people – cityfolk, farmers, nobility, churchmen, merchants – adapt? Do the elite remain visible and how prominent is the Church? Where and how do we see culture change through the arrival of new groups or new ideas? Do burials form a clear guide to the changing world? And how did the environment change in this period of stress – was the classical period landscape much altered through the attested depopulation and economic deterioration? And underlying much of the discussion is a consideration of the nature and quality of our source material: how good is the archaeology of these periods and how good is our current reading of the materials available? Combined, these expert studies offer valuable new analyses of people and places in a complex, challenging and crucial period in European history.Trade Review...it is an essential publication for anyone working on the western Mediterranean and Europe from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages. * Medieval Archaeology *It [this collection] highlights new and interesting aspects – from the north to the south of Europe – of the factors and the change agents that affected settlement processes and the formation/transformation of new post-Roman societies. * Early Medieval Europe *…the volume succeeds admirably in both providing a series of status quaestionum and sketching roadmaps for future scholarship to follow. * The Medieval Review *Table of ContentsList of Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction: Changing Data and Changing Interpretations in the Study of Transformations of Late Antique Space and Society Neil Christie 1. Transformation in the Cities of Northern Italy between the Fifth and Seventh Centuries AD. Forms, Functions and Societies Gian Pietro Brogiolo 2. Rome. An Analysis of Changes in Topography and Population between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages Roberto Meneghini 3. The Transformation of Society in Late Antique Hispania (AD 300–700) Javier Arce 4. Per omnium villas vicosque cunctos: Rural Landscapes in Late Antique Southern Italy Roberto Goffredo and Giuliano Volpe 5. The Countryside of Southern Gaul from the Fourth to Seventh Centuries AD. Settlement, Landscape and Society Claude Raynaud 6. Villas, Visigoths and Evangelisation: Rural Archaeology in Late Antique Novempopulana Simon Esmonde Cleary 7. Rural Settlements in the Territory of Salamanca (Spain) between the Late Roman Period and the Early Middle Ages: Testing a Model Enrique Ariño 8. Transformation in the Avon Valley from the Late Fourth to Seventh Centuries AD: A Case Study from the West Midlands, England Abigail E. I. Tompkins 9. Changing Landscapes? Land, People and Environment in England, AD 350–600 Stephen Rippon 10. Diversity in Unity: Exploring Survival, Transition and Ethnogenesis in Late Antique Western Britain Roger White 11. Landscape, Economy and Society in Late and Post-Roman Wales Andy Seaman 12. Military Might for a Depopulated Region? Interpreting the Archaeology of the Lower Rhine Area in the Late Roman Period Stijn Heeren 13. Landscapes of the Limitanei at the North-Western Edge of Empire Rob Collins 14. People and Landscapes in Northern Italy: Interrogating the Burial Archaeology of the Early Middle Ages Alexandra Chavarría Arnau 15. Rural and Urban Contexts in North-Eastern Spain: Examining and Interpreting Transformations across the Fifth–Seventh Centuries AD Pilar Diarte-Blasco 16. Spatial Inequality and the Formation of an Early Medieval Landscape in the Centre of the Iberian Peninsula Lauro Olmo-Enciso 17. Discontinuities, Threads of Continuity, Academic Inertia and All That: Debating the Late Antique and Early Medieval Archaeologies of Inner Iberia Alfonso Vigil-Escalera Guirado

    5 in stock

    £55.00

  • The Ancient Art of Transformation: Case Studies

    Oxbow Books The Ancient Art of Transformation: Case Studies

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Ancient Art of Transformation: Case Studies from Mediterranean Contexts examines instances of human transformation in the ancient and early Christian Mediterranean world by exploring the ways in which art impacts, aids, or provides evidence for physical, spiritual, personal, and social transitions. Building on Arnold van Gennep’s notion of universal rites of passage, papers in this volume expand the definition of “transformation” to include widespread transitions such as shifts in political establishments and changes in cultural identity. In considering these broadly defined “passages,” authors have observed particular changes in the visual record, whether they be manifest, enigmatic, or symbolic.While several papers address transitions that are incomplete, resulting in intermediary, hybrid states, others suggest that the medium itself can be integral to interpreting a transition, and in some cases, be itself transformed. Together, the volume covers not only a broad chronological span (c. 5th century BC to 4th century AD), but also an expansive geographical range (Egypt, Greece, and Italy). Reflecting upon issues central to a variety of Mediterranean cultures (Egyptians, Etruscans, Greeks, Romans, and early Christians), The Ancient Art of Transformation documents how personal, societal, and historical changes become permanently fixed in the material record.The Ancient Art of Transformation examines the visual manifestation of human transformation in the ancient and early medieval Mediterranean world, exploring the role of art and visual culture in enabling, hindering, or documenting physical, spiritual, personal, and social transitions such as pregnancy and birth, initiations, marriage, death and funerals. The definition of “transformation” is also expanded to address instances of less personal and more widespread transitions such as shifts in political establishments and changes in cultural identity in geographic locations. Additionally, although the ancient material record documents certain rites of passage such as marriage and death extensively, artifacts and their accompanying images are often studied simply to reconstruct these social processes. Authors here suggest that material evidence itself can be integral to interpreting a transition, and in some cases, be itself transformed. Further, several papers address transitions that are incomplete, resulting in intermediary, hybrid states that are very often reflected in the visual record such as Athenian vase-painting imagery forecasting the bride as a mother, displays of nudity that reflect intermediate life stages in Etruscan art and Octavian’s visual transformation into Pharaoh and Augustus in Egyptian architecture and material culture. At its core the volume establishes current methods for understanding how ancient visual culture shaped, informed, and was affected by processes of transformation. Together, these papers offer a close examination of various types of visual evidence from several cultures and periods (e.g., Etruscan, Greek, Roman, early Christian), and document how personal, societal, historical changes become permanently fixed in the material record.Trade Review…an excellent collection of essays for anyone interested in ancient art in a transitional stage and the editors should be congratulated for putting together specialists who were able to write about this topic not only eruditely but even attractively. * Ancient West & East *Table of ContentsContents List of Figures Abbreviations Contributors Acknowledgements Approaching Transformation Renee M. Gondek and Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver 1. On the Threshold of Old Age: Perceptions of the Elderly in Athenian Red-Figure Vase-Painting Nicholas A. Harokopos 2. The Transformation of the Bride in Attic Vase-Painting Victoria Sabetai 3. Transitory Nudity: Life Changes in Etruscan Art Bridget Sandhoff 4. Cultural Maneuvering in the Elite Tombs of Ptolemaic Egypt Sara E. Cole 5. Octavian Transformed as Pharaoh and as Emperor Augustus Erin A. Peters 6. Ethnic Identity, Social Identity, and the Aesthetics of Sameness in the Funerary Monuments of Roman Freedmen Devon Stewart 7. Greater in Death: The Transformative Effect of Convivial Iconography on Roman Cineraria Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver 8. A Viewer Walks into a Tomb: Transformation in the Cubiculum Leonis Ethan Gannaway 9. Protoplasts and Prophets: The Stucco Reliefs in the Orthodox Baptistery in Ravenna Rachel Danford

    5 in stock

    £38.00

  • Death in Mycenaean Laconia: A Silent Place

    Oxbow Books Death in Mycenaean Laconia: A Silent Place

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisA Silent Place: Death in Mycenaean Lakonia is the first book-length systematic study of the Late Bronze Age (LBA) burial tradition in south-eastern Peloponnese, Greece, and the first to comprehensively present and discuss all Mycenaean tombs and funerary contexts excavated and/or simply reported in the region from the 19th century to present day. The book will discuss and reconstruct the emergence and development of the Mycenaean mortuary tradition in Lakonia by examining the landscape of death, the burial architecture, the funerary and post-funerary customs and rituals, and offering patterns over a longue durée.The author proposes patterns of continuity from the Middle Bronze Age (even the Early Bronze Age in terms of burial architecture) to the LBA and, equally important, from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age,and reconstructs diachronic processes of invention of tradition and identity in Mycenaean communities, on the basis of tomb types and their material culture. The text highlights the social, political and economic history of Late Bronze Age Lakonia from the evolution of the Mycenaean civilisation and the establishment of palatial administration in the Spartan vale, to the demise of Mycenaean culture and the turbulent post–collapse centuries, as reflected by the burial offerings.The book also brings to publication the chamber tombs at Epidavros Limera that remained largely unpublished since their excavation in the 1930s and 1950s. Epidavros Limera was one of the most important prehistoric coastal sites in prehistoric southern Greece (early 3rd–late 4th millennium BC), and one of the main harbour towns of the Mycenaean administrative centres of central Lakonia. It is one of very few Mycenaean sites that flourished uninterruptedly from the emergence of the Mycenaean civilisation until after the collapse of the palatial administration and into the transition to the Early Iron Age. The present study of the funerary architecture and of the pottery from the tombs suggests that the site was responsible for the introduction of the chamber tomb type on the Greek mainland in the latest phase of the Middle Bronze Age (definitely no later than the transitional Middle Bronze Age/Late Bronze Age period), and not in the early phase of the Late Bronze Age (Late Helladic I) as previously assumed.Trade Review...a comprehensive study of Late Bronze Age funerary archaeology to challenge a long held assumption that Laconia was abandoned after the decline of Mycenaean palaces. * Antiquity *Overall, this is a very useful and revealing survey, and anyone wishing to discuss Mycenaean burial evidence in Laconia would do well to make good use of it and follow its system of cataloguing the cemeteries and individual graves. * Journal of Greek Archaeology *Table of ContentsPreface (by Professor Bill Cavanagh) Preface and Acknowledgements List of illustrations List of tables Introduction Chapter 1 – Chronicle of explorations of the LBA Chapter 2 – Before the Mycenaeans Chapter 3 – The location of the graves Chapter 4 – Architecture Chapter 5 – Burial customs and funerary rites Chapter 6 – Material Culture Chapter 7 – Epilogue Appendix: The development of early Epidavros Limera in historical times (late 10th c. BC to Roman times) Bibliography and Abbreviations

    5 in stock

    £59.75

  • Mediterranean Archaeologies of Insularity in the

    Oxbow Books Mediterranean Archaeologies of Insularity in the

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisRecently, complex interpretations of socio-cultural change in the ancient Mediterranean world have emerged that challenge earlier models. Influenced by today's hyper-connected age, scholars no longer perceive the Mediterranean as a static place where "Greco-Roman" culture was dominant, but rather see it as adynamic and connected sea where fragmentation and uncertainty, along with mobility and networking, were the norm. Hence, a current theoretical approach to studying ancient culture has been that of globalization. Certain eras of Mediterranean history (e.g., the Roman empire) known for their increased connectivity have thus been analyzed from a globalized perspective that examines rhizomal networking, cultural diversity, and multiple processes of social change. Archaeology has proven a useful discipline for investigating ancient "globalization" because of its recent focus on how identity is expressed through material culture negotiated between both local and global influences when levels of connectivity are altered. One form of identity that has been inadequately explored in relation to globalization theory is insularity. Insularity, or the socially recognized differences expressed by people living on islands, is a form of self-identification created within a particular space and time. Insularity, as a unique social identity affected by "global" forces, should be viewed as an important research paradigm for archaeologies concerned with re-examining cultural change.The purpose of this volume is to explore how comparative archaeologies of insularity can contribute to discourse on ancient Mediterranean "globalization." The volume's theme stems from a colloquium session that was chaired by the volume's co-editors at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in January 2017. Given the current state of the field for globalization studies in Mediterranean archaeology, this volume aims to bring together for the first time archaeologists working ondifferent islands and a range of material culture types to examine diachronically how Mediterranean insularities changed during eras when connectivity increased, such as the Late Bronze Age, the era of Greek and Phoenician colonization, the Classical period, and during the High and Late Roman imperial eras. Each chapter aims to situate a specific island or island group within the context of the globalizing forces and networks that conditioned a particular period, and utilizes archaeological material toreveal how islanders shaped their insular identities, or notions of insularity, at the nexus of local and global influences.Table of ContentsPreface About the Authors Abstracts 1. Introduction Jody Michael Gordon and Anna Kouremenos 2. Nuragic Networking? Assessing Globalization and Glocalization in a Late Bronze Age Sardinian Context Anthony Russell 3. Mobility and Globalization: The View from the Bronze Age Cyclades Evi Gorogianni 4. Globalization Processes and Insularity on the Dalmatian Islands in the Late Iron Age Charles Barnett and Marina Ugarković 5. Apollo Archegetes as a Globalizing Divinity: Numismatic Iconography and the Memory of Sicilian Naxos Leigh Anne Lieberman 6. Balearic Indigeneity in a Global Mediterranean: Considering Circular Domestic Structures of Late Iron Age Menorca Alexander Smith 7. Fashioning a Global Goddess: The Representation of Isis across Hellenistic Seascapes Lindsey A. Mazurek 8. Globalization and Insularity in (Dis)Connected Crete Jane E. Francis 9. From the Land of the Paphian Aphrodite to the Busy Christian Countryside: Globalization, Empire, and Insularity in Early and Late Roman Cyprus Jody Michael Gordon and William R. Caraher Afterword P. Nick Kardulias Index

    5 in stock

    £43.97

  • The Oasis Papers 9: A Tribute to Anthony J. Mills

    Oxbow Books The Oasis Papers 9: A Tribute to Anthony J. Mills

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis new volume in the Oasis Papers series marks the 40th anniversary of archaeological fieldwork in the Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert under the leadership of Anthony J. Mills and presents a synthesis of the current state of our knowledge of the oasis and its interconnections with surrounding regions, especially the Nile Valley. The papers are by distinguished authorities in the field and postgraduate students who specialise in different aspects of Dakhleh and presents an almost complete survey of the archaeology of Dakhleh including much unpublished, original material. It will be one of the few to document a specific part of modern Egypt in such detail and thus should have a broad and lasting appeal. The content of some of the papers is unlikely to be published in any other form elsewhere. Dakhleh is possibly the most intensively examined wider geographic region within Egypt.Table of ContentsPreface and Dedication Conference Programme General: The North Kharga Oasis Darb ‘Ain Amur Survey: Past Research and Future Questions (Salima Ikram) Ladies, Sandals and Giraffes. Four Decades of Rock Art Research by the Dakhleh Oasis Project (Pawel L. Polkowski) The Dakhleh Oasis: A Micro-Cosmos Reflecting Environmental and Social Changes (Ursula Thanheiser) Prehistory: Pleistocene Geoarchaeological Surveys, Kharga Oasis Prehistory Project (KOPP), 2001–2011 plus others, Western Desert of Egypt (Maxine R. Kleindienst) The Holocene Prehistory of Dakhleh and Kharga Oases: the Masara and Bashendi Cultural Units (Mary M. A. McDonald) The Sheikh Muftah Cultural Unit: An Overview of Oasis/Desert Habitation during the 4th and 3rd Millennia with Comments on Future Research Directions (Ashten R. Warfe and Sarah M. Ricketts) Historical Periods: Bones of the Ancestors: 40 Years of Bioarchaeology in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt (Tosha L. Dupras, Peter G. Sheldrick, Lana J. Williams and Sandra M. Wheeler) Trauma in Dakhleh Oasis (Peter G. Sheldrick) Desert Deviations: Massaging Standard Writing Conventions in North Kharga’s Ancient Graffiti (Nikolaos Lazaridis) Seth in Hieratic and Demotic Sources from Dakhleh Oasis (Günter Vittmann) Dynastic: Seth on Rocks: Rock Art Imagery in Dakhleh Oasis of the Pharaonic Period (Pawel L. Polkowski) Mapping Evidence for Early Dynastic Activity in the Dakhleh Region (Caleb R. Hamilton) Happy Cattle Herders? The Case of the Sheikh Muftah Community at Balat, Dakhleh Oasis (Clara Jeuthe and Veerle Linseele) Forty Years Later: An Overview of the Excavations at Balat-‘Ain Aseel (Laure Pantalacci) An Overview of Old Kingdom Egyptian Interest and Activity in the Western Desert (Amy J. Pettman) The Late Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period in the ‘Southern Oasis’ and the Theban Western Desert (John C. Darnell and Colleen Manassa Darnell) Egypt’s Western Oases during the New Kingdom (Richard J. Long) Egypt’s Western Oases during the Third Intermediate Period: An Overview (Richard J. Long) Dakhleh Oasis in the Late Period (Caroline Hubschmann) The Cemetery at ‘Ain Tirghi (Colin A. Hope) Note sur l’usage du mandrin pour le façonnage des céramiques Oasis de Dakhleh et de Kharga, Basse Époque, VIe–IVe s. av. J.-C. (Sylvie Marchand) Ptolemaic and Late Roman: Ptolemaic Dakhleh: An Overview of the Current State of Research (James C. R. Gill) A Note on the Roman Period Sites in Dakhleh Oasis (Colin A. Hope) The Bir al-Shaghala Necropolis: An Architectural Overview (Magdi Ibrahim and Sobhi Ashour) Tomb 6 at Bir al-Shaghala, Mut (Maher Bashendi Amin) Rock-cut Tombs in Eastern Dakhleh (Sabri Youssef Abd al-Rahman) Dining with the Gods in the Painted Residence at Kellis? (Helen Whitehouse) ‘Ain al-Sabil in Dakhleh Oasis (Kamel A. Bayoumy and Mahmoud M. Masoud) Christianity in Dakhleh Oasis: An Archaeological Overview (Gillian E. Bowen) Changes in Funerary Structures at Kharga from ‘Traditional’ to ‘Christian’ Tombs (Françoise Dunand) The Coptic and Syriac, Christian and Manichaean Texts recovered from Ismant al-Kharab: An Update on New Discoveries and Significant Research since First Publication (Iain Gardner) Contribution of the Textiles to the Study of the Site of Al-Deir, Kharga Oasis (Fleur Letellier-Willemin) Household Furnishing Textiles (Soft Furnishings) from Kellis (Rosanne Livingstone) The Church at Dayr al-Malak in Dakhleh Oasis (Gillian E. Bowen and Colin A. Hope) Islamic: Islamic Sites in Dakhleh Oasis (Colin A. Hope) The Qasr Dakhleh Project: An Overview (Fred Leemhuis) Observations on Some Ceramics and a Stone Vessel from the 2013 Field Season at al-Qasr (Paul Kucera) The Remarkable Case of Halima ‘Uthman: A Glance into her Daily Life (Anetta Lyzwa-Piber) Torpedoes from al-Qasaba: Ottoman Storage Jars along the Darb al-Tawil Caravan Route in Dakhleh Oasis (Egypt) (Heiko Riemer)

    5 in stock

    £75.97

  • Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global

    Oxbow Books Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisIn recent decades, there has been a new surge of interest in the history and legacies of the Silk Roads both within academic and public discourses. A field of Silk Roads Studies has come into its own. Consciously mirroring the temperament of its subject, the field has moved out of the narrow niches of particular disciplines to become a truly interdisciplinary endeavor. New research findings about the historical operations of the Silk Roads and interpretations of their legacies for the modern and contemporary world have broken down geographical and temporal divides that once demarcated the Silk Roads as primarily pre-modern and Old World-centered conduits of globalization. In light of these developments, the time is ripe to begin formulating a new definition of the contour of Silk Roads Studies and laying a new foundation for further work in this field. Silk Roads: From Local Realities to Global Narratives brings together leading scholars in multiple disciplines related to Silk Roads studies. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas. This holistic approach to understanding ancient globalization, exchanges, transformations, and movements - and their continued relevance to the present - is in line with contemporary academic trends toward interdisciplinarity. Indeed, the Silk Roads is such an expansive topic that many approaches to its study must be included to represent accurately its many facets. The volume emphasizes exchange and transformation along the Silk Roads - moments of acculturation or hybridization that contributed to novel syncretic forms. It highlights the multiplicity of networks that constituted the Silk Roads, including land and maritime routes, and approaches to the Silk Roads from Antiquity to China’s One Belt One Road Initiative from Afro-Eurasia to the Americas.Trade ReviewThe papers range geographically across the overland and maritime Silk Routes, and chronologically from antiquity to contemporary issues around China’s One Belt One Road Initiative. As such, it is an amazing volume. * Current World Archaeology *Lerner and Shi argue that “the time is ripe to begin formulating a new definition of the contour of Silk Roads Studies and laying a new foundation for further work in this field” (p. 1); this interdisciplinary volume with its broad-ranging content is certainly a very good start. * Antiquity *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Contributors Introduction Section One: Acculturation and Hybridization 1. The “Birth” of the Silk Road Between Ecological Frontiers and Military Innovation Nicola Di Cosmo 2. Sogdians in Shanxi (386 CE-618 CE): Literary and Archeological Evidence Xiaoyan Qi 3. From Exotic Toys to Objects of Scientific Inquiry: A Special Way of Transmitting European Optical Knowledge in the Qing Dynasty Yunli Shi 4. The Karakorum Highway: Gateway of Empires, Religions, and Commerce Saba Samee Section Two: Understanding Spice Through Interdisciplinarity 5. A TRP Along the Silk Roads: How and Why We Detect and Use Spices Wayne Silver and Cecil J. Saunders 6. Silk Road Pharmacy: Debating Theriac and Defining the Natural World Monique O’Connell 7. Spice and Taste in the Culinary World of the Early Modern Mediterranean Eric Dursteler Section Three: Tradition as Continuity and Change 8. Devotional Prints and Practice: Woodcuts from the Library Cave at Dunhuang Bernadine Barnes 9. Dome of Heaven: From the Lantern Ceiling to the Chinese Wooden Dome Di Luo 10. “Malacca” – From Fabled Port to Muddy Lagoon: A Cautionary Tale of Ecological Disaster Margaret Sarkissian 11. Twenty-first Century Trading Routes in Mongolia: Changing Pastoral Soundscapes and Lifeways Jennifer Post 12. Erasing the Local, Celebrating the Local: Tracing the Contradictions of the Silk Road in Pakistan Chad Haines Section Four: Cultural Transactions 13. Arsacid Economic Activity on the Silk Road Touraj Daryaee 14. Pearls and Power: Chōla's Tribute Mission to the Northern Song Court within the Maritime Silk Road Trade Network James A. Anderson 15. “Flying Cash”: Credit Instruments on the Silk Roads Dan Du Section Five: Long-Distance Commodity Trade 16. The Case for Shipwrecked Indians in Germany Jeffrey D. Lerner 17. Samuel Shaw’s ‘Maritime Silk Road’ from American Independence towards Monopoly, 1784–1794 John A. Ruddiman

    5 in stock

    £68.74

  • A Life in Balkan Archaeology

    Oxbow Books A Life in Balkan Archaeology

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis memoir is not really about research questions or main conclusions. It tells the story of a boy growing up in Plymouth, Devon, getting excited about archaeology after visits to mainland Greece and Crete, trying to get into Greek archaeology and re-locating northwards into the Balkans, where he spent a career in prehistoric research. The chapters alternate between museum/university experiences and my major research projects. The experiences of working in that part of the world as the Third Balkan War was starting were dramatic and a history-style chapter is devoted to these beginnings.The Balkan prehistoric club in the west is a very small and select group so there is an intrinsic interest about how westerners did their archaeology there and how they interacted with local colleagues. There is also a sense of a ‘colonial relationship’ between westerners knowledgeable about theory and method, with well-stocked libraries and large research grants and easterners with little of the above. On a basic level, the memoir presents stories with implications for east - west relationships that will soon disappear from living memory. The ways that research projects originated and developed are strongly featured and there is a fund of anecdotes about prehistorians living and dead. The publication of this memoir records those fragments of the discipline’s history that are in danger of being lost forever. But my life story is not erased from this account, which is not an anthropological work but, rather, a participant account with a modicum of relevant personal details. The book providing the archaeological results is the publication Forging identities in the prehistory of Old Europe. Dividuals, individuals and communities 7000-3000 BC - a synthesis of academic research in Balkan prehistory. This memoir provides the insider story to the research results.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of figures List of plates Image credits Preface 1. Growing up 2. Undergraduate days 3. Postgraduate days 4. Museum intermezzo 5. Newcastle upon Tyne 6. The Neothermal Dalmatia Project 7. The background to the Third Balkan War of 1991–1995 8. The Upper Tisza Project 9. The fragmentation breakthrough and other broken stories 10. Working in the European Association of Archaeologists 11. Life in Durham 12. Research in the Balkans in the 2000s 13. The Ukrainian Trypillia Megasites Project 14. Looking back – looking forward Further reading

    5 in stock

    £40.23

  • Crafting Textiles: Tablet Weaving, Sprang, Lace and Other Techniques from the Bronze Age to the Early 17th Century

    Oxbow Books Crafting Textiles: Tablet Weaving, Sprang, Lace and Other Techniques from the Bronze Age to the Early 17th Century

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisNew research into the techniques of tablet weaving, sprang, braiding, knotting and lace is presented in this lavishly illustrated volume written by leading specialists from Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and USA. Drawing inspiration from the pioneering work of Peter Collingwood, this publication explores aspects of these craft skills in the prehistoric, Roman and medieval world through scientific, object-based analysis and 'research through making'.Chapters include the growth of patterned tablet weaving for trimming garments in prehistoric Central Europe; recently identified styles of headdress worn in the Roman Rhineland and pre-Islamic Egypt; Viking-age Dublin as a production centre for tablet-woven bands; a new interpretation of the weaving technique used to make luxurious gold bands in the twelfth to late thirteenth centuries; and the development out of plaiting of bobbin lace borders in gold and silver threads from the fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries. Practical experiments test methods of hand spinning and the production of figure-hugging hose in ancient Greece and Renaissance Italy. A typology of braid and knotting structures in late medieval Europe is also set out for the first time. Diagrams, illustrations and photographs enrich each chapter with a wealth of visual source material.The work is the outcome of recent discoveries of archaeological textile finds from excavations as well as fresh examination of material recovered in the past, or preserved in treasuries. Early textiles form an increasingly popular subject of interest and this publication, which is a landmark in the study of various specialised textile techniques, aims to provide the reader with a better understanding of these virtuoso craft skills in antiquity.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Contributor addresses Section I: Tablet weaving 1. ‘Tablet weaving is a small byway of textile production…’ Bronze and Iron Age tablet bands with stripes, meanders and triangles from the salt mines in Austria Karina Grömer 2. The use of weaving tablets in the production of headdresses in Egypt in the Roman and Byzantine periods. A study of a bourrelet from Antinoopolis Claire Gérentet-de-Saluneaux, and Fabienne Médard 3. Evidence of tablet weaving from Viking-age Dublin Frances Pritchard 4. The so-called Palermo Bands and their technique Regula Schorta Section II: Sprang 5. Hairnets with gold-tube beads from the Roman Rhineland and their textile technique Petra Linscheid 6. Sprang hairnets from the necropolis of Fag el Gamous in the Fayum, Egypt Anne Kwaspen and Kristin South 7. Tight-fitting Clothing in Antiquity and the Renaissance: Research and Experimental Reconstruction Dagmar Drinkler and Carol James Section III: Braiding and Lace making 8. Braided strings and Turk’s head knots on European secular and religious textiles Joy Boutrup 9. A unique survival: A woman’s fifteenth-century headdress from Lengberg Castle, East Tyrol Beatrix Nutz, Rachel Case, and Carol James 10. From narrow four-strand plaits to openwork bobbin-made braids and edgings Lena Dahrén Section IV: Spinning 11. The Story of the Twist – Handspinning as a Medieval Craft Katrin Kania Index

    5 in stock

    £38.00

  • The Death of Archaeological Theory?

    Oxbow Books The Death of Archaeological Theory?

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Death of Archaeological Theory? addresses the provocative subject of whether it is time to discount the burden of somewhat dogmatic theory and ideology that has defined archaeological debate and shaped archaeology over the last 25 years. Seven chapters meet this controversial subject head on, also assessing where archaeological theory is now, and future directions. John Bintliff questions what theory is and argues that archaeologists should be freed from 'Ideopraxists', or those who preach that a single approach or model is right to the exclusion of all others. Marc Pluciennik again questions what we mean by archaeological theory and argues that the role of intellectual fashion is underestimated. He predicts pressure from outside archaeology to redirect our dominant theories towards genetic and human impact theory. Kristian Kristiansen argues that theory cannot die, but it can change direction and sees signs of a retreat from the present post-modern and post-processual cycle towards a more science based, rationalistic cycle of revived modernity. To Mark Pearce the most striking thing about the present state of archaeological theory is that there is no emerging paradigm to be discerned; he proposes that Theory is not dead, but has instead become more eclectic and nuanced. Two papers offer a different perspective from other areas of the world; Alexander Gramsch examines the issue from the German tradition and shows that in Central and Eastern Europe not only has Anglo-American Theory had limited impact, but current discussions on the future of method and theory offer a broader view of the discipline in which older traditions are seen to form the foundation. Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus demonstrate that American archaeologists do not foresee the death of a genuinely archaeological theory (which they believe has never existed) but fear the real catastrophe would be the death of anthropological theory, because some anthropology today has become decidedly anti-scientific, rejecting not only the controlled comparison and contrast of cultures, but also the use of generalisation, both of which are crucial to theories and models and without which the longue durée will always be invisible.Trade ReviewEntertaining and well written, this work contains a wealth of easily accessible information, delivered with a light touch by the contributors who draw on extensive sources. Is archaeological theory dead? Not if it continues to be debated in this fashion. * Current World Archaeology *'one of the most provocative collections I have read in years.' * European Journal of Archaeology *Table of Contents1. Introduction (John Bintliff and Mark Pearce) 2. The Death of Archaeological Theory? (John Bintliff) 3. A New World Perspective on the ‘Death’ of Archaeological Theory (Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus) 4. Theory, Fashion, Culture (Mark Pluciennik) 5. Theory in Central European Archaeology: Dead or Alive? (Alexander Gramsch) 6. Theory does not die it changes direction (Kristian Kristiansen) 7. Have Rumours of the ‘Death of Theory’ been exaggerated? (Mark Pearce)

    5 in stock

    £19.43

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