Oxbow Books
Oxbow Books is a leading publisher in the fields of archaeology, ancient history and medieval studies, with an international reputation for quality and affordability. Oxbow's archaeology publishing covers all periods from earliest prehistory through classical archaeology, the ancient Near East, Egyptology, the Middle Ages and post-medieval archaeology. They publish a wide variety of books including scholarly monographs, edited collections of papers, and excavation and research reports in related fields such as archaeological practice and theory, archaeozoology, and environmental, landscape and maritime archaeology.
Founded in Oxford in 1983 by academic and museum archaeologist, David Brown, Oxbow Books has evolved and expanded significantly over the years. Now celebrating their 40th anniversary, Oxbow remains dedicated to the quality of their publishing for readers, and the contribution their books bring to the scholarly and professional communities more broadly.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 187
ISBN: 9781842170779
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2002
Series: Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Illustrations: with numerous figs
Description:
Reprint of another classic Neolithic Studies Group volume. 'It is a sign of the intellectual health of a specialist study group that its deliberations can generate collections of papers of general interest. The topical issue of landscape is addressed, although with the added complication of attempting to focus on the domestic as opposed to ceremonial aspects of Neolithic life'.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 213
ISBN: 9781842170762
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2002
Series: Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Description:
The first ever publication of the Neolithic Studies Group, containing papers on the `structures' of Neolithic Europe.Contributions include: Neolithic houses in mainland Britain and Ireland - a sceptical view (Julian Thomas); Houses in context: Building as process (Alasdair Whitlle); A Central European Perspective (Jonathon Last); Neolithic houses in Ireland (Eoin Grogan); Neolithic buildings in Scotland (Gordon Barclay); Neolithic buildings in England, Wales and the Isle of Man (Tim Darvill); Mesolithic or later houses at Bowmans Farm, Romsey Extra, Hampshire (Francis Green); Ballygalley houses, co.Antrim (Derek Simpson); Later Neolthic Structires at Trelystan, Powys (Alex Gibson); Life, times and works of House 59, Tell Ovcharovo, Bulgaria (Douglass Bailey); Structure ans ritual in Neolithic houses (Peter Topping); Architecture and Cosmology in the Balinese house: life is not that simple (Colin Richards); Houses in the Neolithic imagination: an Amazonian Example (Christine Hugh-Jones).
Format: Hardback
Pages: 360
ISBN: 9781842170700
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2002
Series: Dakhleh Oasis Project Monographs
Illustrations: many b/w figs, tbs, pls
Description:
This volume is the second produced by the Dakhleh Oasis Project devoted to reporting the preliminary results of its field work. The volume is divided into two parts: the first part includes reports on the study of various prehistoric and historic sites; the second part is devoted to the work on the settlement of Ismant el-Kharab, ancient Kellis, and two of its cemeteries. The latter papers include a description of the excavations, a discussion of the architectural evolution of the Main Temple Complex and the significance of the Large East Church, an attempt to reconstruct the Temple of Tutu using 3D computer modelling, and a study of the main wall paintings found in the Main Temple Complex.
Several papers also present the results of research carried out on specific categories of artefacts and materials, such as the textiles, basketry and leather goods, ceramics, metals and metallurgy, oils, terracotta figurines, and the flora and fauna of ancient Kellis.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 128
ISBN: 9781842170229
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2002
Series: Archaeology Data Service & Digital Antiquity Guides to Good Practice
Illustrations: 15 b/w illus
Description:
Performing arts' covers a vast range of interests and skills, involving as it does designers, directors, actors and performers, musicians, critics, technicians, analysts, administrators, theorists. A central tenet of this Guide is to encourage professionals in the performing arts to consider some of the advantages that digital resources may now offer. It is noticeably different from its predecessors in the series.
Not so much a manual of 'how to do it' it is primarily intended to encourage you to use the available technology in the first place. All the contributors have directed successful projects involving various aspects of digital resources related to the performing arts. In some instances it was for documentation purposes, in some for teaching purposes, in some for research purposes, in some for all three. The guide includes a comprehensive glossary of terminology.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 260
ISBN: 9781842170809
Pub Date: 12 Sep 2002
Illustrations: 93 b/w figs
Description:
In this biography of Sir Cyril Fox (1882-1967), Charles Scott-Fox discovers that his father was an extraordinary man, an inspiring teacher, an effective administrator, a humanist and an influential archaeologist during the golden years of 20th century archaeology. This book begins as it should with Fox's early childhood and his schooling, before moving on to his university education and his early interest in archeology, initially as a hobby. The excavations and surveys that he carried out, especially in the Cambridgeshire region, the numerous appointments that he held and the number of major and influential publications that he produced, including his doctoral thesis Archaeology of the Cambridge Region , the Personality of Britain , and Monmouthshire Houses , testify to the `extraordinary' life and career of this man.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 137
ISBN: 9781842170724
Pub Date: 01 Jun 2002
Series: Gesher Benot YaÆaqov Monograph Series
Illustrations: 27 b/w figs 37 photos, 21 pls, 21 tbs
Description:
Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, located in the Dead Sea Rift valley, is one of the oldest non-African sites to have yielded evidence for the activities of groups of hominin hunter-gatherers. The excavations recovered thousands of Acheulian period stone tools and animal bones that had accumulated in and around an ancient lake about 780, 000 years ago. The deposits have remained waterlogged virtually ever since, and this unusual circumstance resulted in the preservation of plant macrofossils, including pieces of wood and bark that can be identified to the level of individual plant species.
Most of the pieces probably accumulated naturally around the lake, but a few show signs of hominin modification - making them the oldest wooden artefacts yet discovered. The unique contribution of the Gesher Benot Ya'aqov palaeobotanical assemblage, however, lies in its value for the palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of a pre-agricultural age - an age that predates changes induced by intensive human activity. This monograph describes the geological and archaeological context of the ancient wood, the criteria for its identification, and its implications for the woods surrounding Gesher Benot Ya'aqov in Lower to Middle Pleistocene times. They include detailed descriptions of the different wood taxa, discuss the present habitats of the identified species, and consider the possible mechanisms by which the wood was deposited. They also provide a survey of the wood fragments that have occasionally been found at other ancient Palaeolithic sites. This volume is the first in a series of monographs which will focus on different aspects of the multidisciplinary investigations at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 64
ISBN: 9781842170380
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2002
Series: Archaeology Data Service & Digital Antiquity Guides to Good Practice
Description:
A basic `how to' for those using audio materials in the creation of digital resources. The guide addresses issues of copyright, the choice of appropriate equipment, presenting and delivering audio material, data management and methodological procedure.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 293
ISBN: 9781842170588
Pub Date: 18 Jan 2002
Illustrations: b/w figs and pls throughout, 22 col pls
Description:
The twenty-five papers, taken from a Cardiff conference in 1998, are concerned with Insular art in its broadest sense, encompassing studies of metalwork, manuscripts, sculpture and textiles, both recent discoveries and new investigations of well-known objects. They include material associated with Anglo-Saxon England as well as early Medieval Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and discoveries of Insular metalwork in Scandinavia. They are divided into five themes which reflect the many recent advances in the study of Insular art.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781842170564
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2001
Illustrations: b/w illus and figs throughout
Description:
This is a volume no Palaeolithic archaeologist should be without. It is offered to Derek Roe by his friends and colleagues as a tribute to his enthusiasm, support and encouragement over many years. The twenty-seven papers range from Africa to the Near East and beyond, to Kazakhstan and Korea, and across southern Europe to Britain, the Thames Valley, East Anglia and Pontnewydd.
The list of authors and the range of topics they write about are a reflection of Derek Roe's influence throughout the Palaeolithic world.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 233
ISBN: 9781842170526
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2001
Illustrations: b/w figs and pls
Description:
This first volume in a series of works on Tell Kosak Shamali focuses on the Chalcolithic deposits at the site, or the Ubaid period. Located on the east bank of the Euphrates the site held an important strategic position and one which had a diverse set of resources available. Investigated since the 1980s and most recently by the University of Tokyo, this volume reports on the results of the excavations, detailing the geographical and cultural setting of the site, the architecture and stratigraphy, the radiocarbon dates, the nature of the finds and the history of the site in the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic.
Evidence from Kosak Shamali provides important insights into the transition from Neolithic agrarian societies to more complex, increasingly urban societies of the Chalcolithic.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 120
ISBN: 9781842170168
Pub Date: 30 Oct 2001
Description:
The University Orator's job is to create formal presentations, in Latin, to mark historic moments in academic life or, most commonly, to present the honorary degrees which Oxford periodically awards to leading international figures. The distinguished Classical scholar Godfrey Bond, who held the post of Orator between 1980 and 1992, was a master at creating concise biographical portraits in clear, beautifully-constructed Latin. This book contains a collection of his addresses to famous figures, including Kiri te Kanawa, Cardinal Basil Hume, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Prince Naruhito of Japan, Joseph Brodsky and Sir Vidia Naipaul.
In all of these elegant orations, the charm and the wit of the man who translated jumbo jets as balanenae ballistariae (`catapulted whales') shines through.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781842170489
Pub Date: 25 Oct 2001
Series: WARP Occasional Papers
Illustrations: b/w figs and illus
Description:
In rare instances prehistoric peoples and/or their most fragile creations are preserved when they become accidentally or intentionally entombed in environments that have remained constantly wet, dry, or frozen. The finds are particularly informative when skeletons retain flesh, internal organs, and clothes, and when they are accompanied by items of personal adornment or weaponry made of wood, cordage or bone in addition to the more common stone and pottery objects. Well-known examples of this kind of survival include the bog-bodies of northern Europe, the Iceman of the Alps, Egyptian and Peruvian mummies, Swiss lake settlements, and in North America, the Ozette Village on the Olympic Peninsula, and Key Marco on Florida's lower Gulf Coast.
These organic materials provide an invaluable window on the past, yet the fact that wetlands contain thousands of years of environmental and cultural history has not risen to the consciousness of the public, the scientific community, or governments. These twenty-seven papers on wetland research across the world, from America, Europe and Australasia, aim to raise the profile of these fragile environments and the potential they have for shedding light on the past.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 280
ISBN: 9781842170335
Pub Date: 01 Aug 2001
Illustrations: many b/w figs and pls
Description:
The 22nd British Museum Classical Colloquium, held in December 1998, was dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Olivier Masson. Throughout his long career his over-riding enthusiasm was in the study of the archaeological heritage of Cyprus, in particular through the collection of the British Museum. Contributors, from Europe and America, write about the major sites, the convictions and motives of those who investigated them, the political background, the movement of antiquities to major European museums and the ensuing rivalry between these institutions.
The discussions show that we can, and indeed must, learn from the triumphs and the mistakes of the 19th century with regard to how we study, exploit and preserve a country's archaeological heritage. The book is a major contribution to the historiography of Cypriot studies.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
ISBN: 9781842170441
Pub Date: 01 Aug 2001
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
The results of recent archaeological excavation, systematic rural survey and detailed studies of pottery distributions have revealed the extent and complexities of the economy in the eastern empire. The eight papers in this volume demonstrate this complexity and prosperity, examining several types of product and how the economy evolved over time.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781842170212
Pub Date: 01 Apr 2001
Series: Lincoln Archaeology Studies
Illustrations: many b/w pls
Description:
The suburb of Wigford lies near the heart of the historic city of Lincoln. Before excavations began in 1972, nothing was known of the prehistory of the area and so the arrival of the Roman army represented the first historic event. This volume publishes the results of the excavation of several sites, made possible by a series of urban development schemes.
Each of the excavations differed in the extent and depth of the stratigraphy uncovered and each belonged to a different period, from the Iron Age to post-medieval.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 71
ISBN: 9781842170120
Pub Date: 01 Feb 2001
Series: Archaeology Data Service & Digital Antiquity Guides to Good Practice
Description:
A basic guide to transferring texts and archiving them (books, manuscripts) into electronic form or similar digital resources, with lots of pointers to specialised information.