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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.

Life and Death in the Mesolithic of Sweden Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781785703850
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
Over the last 20 years a vast number of new and important Swedish Mesolithic sites have been excavated and published in different ways as articles, books and site reports. As yet there has been no study that tries to bring the loose ends together and so the main task of this important new work by one of Sweden’s leading prehistorians is to provide an extensive overview of some of the main sites and results. The timespan is long: c.
RRP: £38.00
Westward on the High-Hilled Plains Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781785704116
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: The Making of the West Midlands
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
The West Midlands has struggled archaeologically to project a distinct regional identity, having largely been defined by reference to other areas with a stronger cultural identity and history, such as Wessex the South-West, and the North. Only occasionally has the West Midlands come to prominence, for instance in the middle Saxon period (viz. the kingdom of Mercia), or, much later, with rural south Shropshire being the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
Transformation in Anglo-Saxon Culture Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781785704970
Pub Date: 27 Jan 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: colour and b/w
Description:
The five authoritive papers presented here are the product of long careers of research into Anglo-Saxon culture. In detail the subject areas and approaches are very different, yet all are cross-disciplinary and the same texts and artefacts weave through several of them. Literary text is used to interpret both history and art; ecclesiastical-historical circumstances explain the adaptation of usage of a literary text; wealth and religious learning, combined with old and foreign artistic motifs are blended into the making of new books with multiple functions; religio-socio-economic circumstances are the background to changes in burial ritual.
RRP: £38.00
Forms of Dwelling Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781785703775
Pub Date: 13 Jan 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
The concept of a socially constructed space of human activity in areas of everyday actions, as initially proposed in the field of anthropology by Tim Ingold, has actually been much more applied in archaeology. In this wide-ranging collection of 13 papers, including a re-assessment by Ingold himself, contributors show why it has been so influential, with papers ranging from the study of Mesolithic to historic and contemporary archaeology, revisiting different research themes, such as Ingold’s own Lapland study, and the development of landscape archaeology. A series of case studies demonstrates the value and strength of the taskscape concept applied to a variety of contexts and scales across wide geographical and temporal situations.
RRP: £38.00
Silk Cover Silk Cover
Format: 
Hardback Paperback
Pages: 152
ISBN: 9781785702792
Pub Date: 12 Jan 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Ancient Textiles
Illustrations: bw and colour
Pages: 152
ISBN: 9781789255515
Pub Date: 15 Nov 2020
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Ancient Textiles
Description:
Already in Greek and Roman antiquity a vibrant series of exchange relationships existed between the Mediterranean regions and China, including the Indian subcontinent, along well-defined routes we call the Silk Roads. Among the many goods that found their way from East to West and vice versa were glass, wine spices, metals and precious stones as well as textile raw materials and fabrics of wool and silk, a precious fibre that was highly appreciated in many of the cultures along the roads that were named after it by modern scholars. These collected papers bring together current historical, philological and archaeological research from different areas and disciplines in order highlight the use, circulation and meaning of silk as a commodity, gift, tribute , booty, and status symbol in varying cultural and chronological contexts between East and West, including technological aspects of silk production.
RRP: £29.95
Gods and Garments Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781785703553
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Ancient Textiles
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
Textiles comprise a vast and wide category of material culture and constitute a crucial part of the ancient economy. Yet, studies of classical antiquity still often leave out this important category of material culture, partly due to the textiles themselves being only rarely preserved in the archaeological record. This neglect is also prevalent in scholarship on ancient Greek religion and ritual, although it is one of the most vibrant and rapidly developing branches of classical scholarship.
RRP: £40.00
A Geography of Offerings Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781785704772
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Oxbow Insights in Archaeology
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
More than quarter of a century ago Richard Bradley published The Passage of Arms. It was conceived as An Archaeological Analysis of Prehistoric Hoards and Votive Deposits, but, as the author concedes, these terms were too narrowly focused for the complex subject of deliberate deposition and the period covered too short. A Geography of Offerings has been written to provoke a reaction from archaeologists and has two main aims.
RRP: £15.99
Agriculture and Industry in South-Eastern Roman Britain Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781785703195
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
The ancient counties surrounding the Weald in the southeastern corner of England have a strongly marked character of their own that has survived remarkably well in the face of ever-increasing population pressure. The area is, however, comparatively neglected in discussion of Roman Britain, where it is often subsumed into a generalised treatment of the ‘civilian’ part of Britannia that is based largely on other parts of the country. This book aims to redress the balance.
RRP: £40.00
Archaeologies of Waste Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 182
ISBN: 9781785703270
Pub Date: 21 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
Waste represents a category of ‘things’, which is familiar and ubiquitous but rarely reflected in archaeological and cultural studies. Perception of waste changes over time and practices associated with waste vary. The ambiguity of waste challenges traditional archaeological approaches that take advantage of refuse to infer past behaviour.
RRP: £36.00
Battlespace 1865 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781785703393
Pub Date: 21 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: American Landscapes
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
For a period of about week in February 1865, as the Civil War was winding down and Plains Indian communities were reeling in the wake of the Sand Creek massacre, combat swept across the Nebraska panhandle, especially along the Platte River. The fighting that marked this event barely compares to the massive campaigns and terrible carnage that marked the conflict that was taking place in the eastern states but it was a significant event at the opening on the ensuing Indian Wars. Operating on terrain they knew well, Cheyenne warriors and other Native forces encountered the US Cavalry who operated within a modern network of long distance migration and pony express trails and military stations.
Care in the Past Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781785703355
Pub Date: 21 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
Care-giving is an activity that has been practiced by all human societies. From the earliest societies through to the present, all humans have faced choices regarding how people in positions of dependency are to be treated. As such, care-giving, and the form it takes, is a central experience of being a human and one that is culturally mediated.
RRP: £38.00
Petra Great Temple Volume 3 Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 622
ISBN: 9781785706127
Pub Date: 21 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
Deeply nestled in the rift valley, the hundreds of tombs and extensive remains of the Nabataean metropolis that was once that nation’s capital city of Petra, evokes a sense of geographic protection and isolation from the outside world. With its sprawling development, Petra became a bustling city with exciting and distinctive architectural and artistic styles as the Petraeans determined what a resplendent capital with a burgeoning population and assured economic future should represent. This third volume devoted to one of its most impressive edifices, the Great Temple, builds on the previous two volumes of excavation reports to examine many facets of Nabataean material culture.
RRP: £60.00
Underground Archaeology Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 232
ISBN: 9781785703515
Pub Date: 21 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour illus
Description:
This book brings together a series of ground-breaking studies on human bones and artefacts recovered from Irish caves principally between 1870 and 1990. Until now these assemblages had either been completely neglected or had not been examined with modern techniques. The 15 expert contributions presented here shine a light on the use and perception of caves at different times in the past, from the Early Mesolithic through to post-medieval times.
RRP: £48.00
Places of Special Virtue Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842171080
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Cardiff Studies in Archaeology
Illustrations: 279 b/w figs, 15 col figs
Description:
This volume explores the landscape settings of megalithic chambered monuments in Wales. Set against a broader theoretical discussion on the significance of the landscape, the authors consider the role of visual landscapes in prehistory, meanings attached to the landscape, and the values and beliefs invested in it. Wales is rich in Neolithic monuments, but the general absence of certain classic monumental forms found in the rest of Britain and Ireland, such as causewayed enclosures, henges, and cursus monuments, seems to have marginalised the Welsh record from many wider discussions on the Neolithic.
The Cerne Giant Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
ISBN: 9781900188944
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Bournemouth Conservation
Illustrations: 53 b/w figs
Description:
Prehistoric war-god, seventeenth century marvel, or living monument? In 1996, a 'trial' was held in Cerne Abbas Village Hall to discuss the origin of the Giant - prehistoric/Romano-British, medieval/post-medieval, or significant for the very fact that he exists, regardless of age. This is the book of the trial: after a preliminary briefing, the witnesses for the three cases present their evidence which ranges from detailed factual information about the archaeology and history of the monument through to its folklore and continuing role as the inspiration for all sorts of activity from local poetry to national advertising.
Snails Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781785705144
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The remains of snails in ancient soils and sediments are one of the most important biological indicators of past landscapes, and have attracted study for well over a century. In spite of this, the only English-language textbook was published in 1972 and is long since out of print. Snails provides a comprehensive, up to date reference text on the use of snails as indicators of past environments in Quaternary landscape studies and archaeology.
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