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: Hardback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781842171806
Pub Date: 29 Aug 2006
Illustrations: 105 b/w illus, 101 tabs, 12 oversize illus
Description:
The Raunds Area Survey forms part of the Raunds Area Project - a major programme of archaeological research into landscape development in Northamptonshire and the wider midland region of England. The Project includes extensive open area excavations of early prehistoric ritual and burial monuments beside the River Nene, Iron Age and Roman settlement at Stanwick, and Saxon and medieval settlement in north Raunds and West Cotton, as well as complementary landscape, historical and biological studies. A series of monographs are planned to cover each aspect of the study.
The present volume gathers the results of a detailed fieldwalking survey, cropmark analysis, magnetometer surveys and excavations, accompanied by allied environmental and documentary researches to provide a dynamic picture of landscape development. The study considers the distribution of worked flint scatters and has identified favoured locations for prehistoric activity. A model for the gradual intensification of settlement and land-use throughout the Iron Age and Roman period including greater exploitation of the Boulder Clay plateau is suggested. Good survival of early-middle Saxon pottery in the plough soil indicates that settlement at this time was mostly confined to the flanks of the Nene valley and tributary streams. The Survey, aided by documentary research, complements the open area excavations and provides a comprehensive model for the creation and early development of villages and open fields.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 234
ISBN: 9781842172681
Pub Date: 10 Aug 2006
Illustrations: b/w illus and CD with supporting data
Description:
Novgorod was a major medieval city and an important centre for trade routes between northern, central and western Europe and the Near East, and has been the subject of intensive investigation since the 1930s. This volume in a series devoted to the archaeology of medieval Novgorod, presents eleven studies of ceramic evidence in terms of chronology and technology, methodology of investigation, and international trade and contacts. The essays also reflect different approaches to studying ceramics by western and Russian scholars.
Some of the subjects explored include hand-made and early wheel-turned pottery from the environs of Novgorod, Novgorod pottery from the 10th to 15th century, handling large urban pottery assemblages, pottery imported from the west and the east, amphorae from Novgorod and the wine trade.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 434
ISBN: 9781842172087
Pub Date: 11 Jul 2006
Illustrations: 16p col plates, b/w illus
Description:
This edited volume of forty-four papers on terracottas opens with a section on New Research , followed by five geographical sections on: Etruria; Umbria and Abruzzo; The Faliscans, Rome and Latium; Campania and Magna Graecia; and Sicily. The terracottas in question are the various parts of roofing systems used by the ancient Italians Italic, Etruscan and colonial Greek and cover both domestic and temple architecture. Thirty-three papers are in Italian, nine in English and two in German.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 156
ISBN: 9781842172339
Pub Date: 11 Jul 2006
Description:
Who owns cultural objects? and who has the right to own them? The contributors to this book have thought long and hard about the ethics and politics of collecting, from a variety of professional perspectives: archaeologist, museum curator, antiquities dealer, collector, legislator.
The book is the outcome of a series of lectures and workshops held in Oxford in October-December 2004. It brings together some stimulating and provocative opinions, that would not usually be found together; archaeology and cultural heritage students rarely come into contact with antiquities dealers or collectors, for instance; museum curators rarely get to know the production processes and rationales behind the legislation and ethical codes they have to abide by. The aim is to provoke thought and debate on this topical and sensitive subject area.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
ISBN: 9781842172063
Pub Date: 06 Jun 2006
Illustrations: 16p col illus
Description:
This book examines the landscape in southwestern Crete from AD 1000-2000, using a phenomenological approach. Specifically, the positioning of outlying churches (exokklisia) and icon stands (eikonostasia) around Sphakia is looked at, in terms of spatial and social reasoning. What is certainly clear, is that people choose the location of sacred buildings particularly carefully, so the locations themselves cannot be seen as random.
Routes, resources and boundaries are all factors but primarily these locations are symbolic: such monuments mark, protect and preserve the memory of significant locations in the landscape.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781842172094
Pub Date: 02 Jun 2006
Series: Levant Supplementary Series
Illustrations: 144 b/w illus, 10 tabs
Description:
Most of the papers published in this volume were originally presented at a conference of the same name, organised by the editors, and held in Atlanta, Georgia, in November 2003. The Wadi Arabah falls between the two areas of southern Jordan and Negev, and has traditionally been seen as a barrier and border. This book (and the conference it came out of) is an attempt to look at this neglected area anew: bridge, rather than barrier.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 190
ISBN: 9781842172179
Pub Date: 12 May 2006
Series: Oxbow Monographs
Illustrations: 8p of col pls, many b/w figs
Description:
The Mote of Mark is a low boss of granite rising from forty-five metres above the eastern shore of Rough Firth, where the Urr Water enters the Solway, between the villages of Kippford and Rockcliffe. The summit comprises a central hollow between two raised areas of rock and was formerly defended by a stone and timber rampart enclosing one third of an acre. The Mote of Mark appears to have first attracted the attention of antiquaries in the late eighteenth century, and first assumed national importance with Alexander Curle's major work in 1913.
After the interruption of the First World War, the site was left largely alone until it was re-excavated in the 1970s. These excavations, in 1973 and '79 were designed to answer three specific questions: How many phases of activity are represented in the structural history of the defences? How many phases of activity are represented by the evidence for Early Medieval metalworking and occupation? And, how does the evidence of occupation within the defences relate to the structural history of the defences? This book presents the results of the excavations and their interpretation within the framework of these questions.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842171592
Pub Date: 22 Apr 2006
Illustrations: colour illus
Description:
Rome's rise to empire is often said to have owed much to the efficiency and military skill of her armies and their technological superiority over barbarian enemies. But just how 'advanced' was Roman military equipment? What were its origins and how did it evolve?
The authors of this book have gathered a wealth of evidence from all over the Roman Empire - excavated examples as well as pictorial and documentary sources - to present a picture of what range of equipment would be available at any given time, what it would look like and how it would function. They examine how certain pieces were adopted from Rome's enemies and adapted to particular conditions of warfare prevailing in different parts of the Empire. They also investigate in detail the technology of military equipment and the means by which it was produced, and discuss wider questions such as the status of the soldier in Roman society. Both the specially prepared illustrations and the text have been completely revised for the second edition of this detailed and authoritative handbook, bringing it up to date with the very latest research. It illustrates each element in the equipment of the Roman soldier, from his helmet to his boots, his insignia, his tools and his weapons. This book will appeal to archaeologists, ancient and military historians as well as the generally informed and inquisitive reader.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
ISBN: 9781842172209
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2006
Series: Current Research in Egyptology
Description:
The fifth annual Current Research in Egyptology Symposium was held in January 2004, at the University of Durham. The conference offers the majority of postgraduates researching Egyptology their first opportunity to present academic work to their peers, and to receive critical feedback. An interesting development in the direction of research in this volume is the emphasis on aspects of identity and individuality.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781842172193
Pub Date: 12 Mar 2006
Series: TRAC
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
TRAC 2005 was held at the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity, University of Birmingham, under the auspices of The Roman Society. Of the twenty-three papers delivered here, this volume presents eight, plus three special contributions. These three papers were commissioned to mark the fifteenth year of TRAC with the intention that they should take stock of TRAC to date and look to where it may go in the future.
A very clear message is conveyed: that TRAC must continue to evolve and that a continued existence in its current form, though possible, will ultimately fail to realise further success. In seeking to engage with new ideas and theories, the endeavour symbolised by the first conference, to bring theory from the margins of Roman archaeology, continues today.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842171851
Pub Date: 21 Feb 2006
Series: Journal of Roman Pottery Studies
Description:
This volume of the JRPS celebrates the career of Kay Hartley, described by Sheppard Frere as "the oracle on Romano-British mortaria". She has been associated with a number of important excavations, such as Heronbridge and Much Hadham, and it has been said of her that "no serious excavation report of the Roman period can be completed without either a contribution from her, or a reference to her work."
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842172049
Pub Date: 28 Jan 2006
Illustrations: b/w figs and pls
Description:
The importance of context has been extensively discussed in recent years. This volume attempts to address the fragmentation and misconceptions that have developed around context in archaeology, highlighting the common threads that link together varying contextual perspectives. The first part of the book examines the concept of archaeological context by offering a critical assessment of its 'historical' development.
The second section presents a number of case studies, and the third section discusses the management of archaeological material. Finally, part four takes the discussion on context further, setting the content of the book in a wider perspective.
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781842171615
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2005
Series: ASTENE Publications
Description:
Contents: Introduction ( Sarah Searight ); Travelling to post: Lady Liston, an ambassadress in Constantinople ( Deborah Manley ); Two feisty ladies in the Levant: Princess Caroline and Lady Craven ( Charles Plouviez ); Travels in the Slavonic provinces of Turkey-in-Europe: Miss Muir Mackenzie and Miss Irby ( Dorothy Anderson ); Three travellers in nineteenth-century Egypt: Sarah Belzoni, Amelia Edwards and Margaret Benson ( Megan Price ); Lucie Duff Gordon: a woman's perception of Egypt ( Sarah Searight ); Governess to the Grand Pasha of Egypt: Emmeline Lott ( Alix Wilkinson ); The unknown pilgrimage to Sinai ( Deborah Manley ); Archaeologists' wives as travel writers ( Elizabeth French ); Women's perceptions of, and perceptions of women in, Egypt's Eastern desert ( Janet Starkey ).
Format: Hardback
Pages: 218
ISBN: 9781842171684
Pub Date: 05 Oct 2005
Series: Levant Supplementary Series
Description:
The eastern Mediterranean was the centre of trade for many centuries, sitting at the junction of what are now Europe, Asia and Africa. It was the place where exotic produce and products could be traded or exchanged for things that had their origins perhaps thousands of miles away. But wherever trade takes place, a similar exchange of ideas, technology and culture also occurs.
This book presents thirty papers on this very subject, looking at the ways in which we can measure the transmission of culture, and how this transmission varied across time and space.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 166
ISBN: 9781842171448
Pub Date: 06 Sep 2005
Series: Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology
Description:
The fourteen papers in this volume focus on the environmental archaeology of Britain, uncovering a rich seam of evidence from what might, to the uninitiated, seem like the most unlikely places. They are centred on issues looked at by Susan Limbrey during her career, and presented in her honour on the occasion of her retirement.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 232
ISBN: 9781842171868
Pub Date: 18 Aug 2005
Illustrations: b/w illus, 2 maps
Description:
The ordinary people who made up the largest section of the population in the cities and towns in the Roman world were largely ignored by contemporary writers and have often been marginalised in traditional studies of Roman urbanism, but research into their patterns of work and social interaction have increased markedly in recent years. This book has come out of a conference on 'Roman Working Lives and Urban Living' held at the University of Durham in 2001. The conference was planned as a forum for people researching urban space and architecture, commercial and retail structures, organisation of craft activity and social theory.
The twelve papers presented here have been organised into two categories: Urban living and the settings for working lives and People at work: Owners, and artisans, crafts and professions . The range of topics and variety of approaches in the papers emphasise the wealth of the material available, and it is hoped that this will stimulate further research into the lives of the 'silent voices' of Roman urban society.
