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Archaeology & Ancient History

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In September 2022 Oxbow's bookshop and distribution buisness merged with Pen & Sword Books, a family run independent publisher of history books. The  book distribution aspect of our business will continue to bring you some of the best books in the field of archaeology and related disciplines as Casemate UK. The Oxbow Books publishing imprint remains as a separate entity, still sold and distributed exclusively by us.

Landscape and Society in Dumnonia Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 432
ISBN: 9781789259773
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 210 B/W and colour illustrations
Description:
This book explores the distinctive landscape and society of South-West England that had emerged by the Iron Age and which continued to develop during the Roman and medieval periods. A focus of the research was the long-term programme of survey and excavation on the Iron Age, Roman, and early medieval settlement at Dainton Elms Cross, in Ipplepen (Devon), which included the only Roman roadside settlement to have seen extensive excavation to the south and west of Exeter on the very edge of the Roman empire, as well as a substantial early medieval cemetery. First discovered through the reporting of an unusual concentration of Roman finds to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the site was investigated through a joint university and community project led by the University of Exeter in partnership with the British Museum/PAS, Devon County Council, and Cotswold Archaeology.
RRP: £50.00
Landscapes of (Re)Conquest Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9798888570692
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 250 B/W and color illustrations
Description:
Frontiers were an integral feature of every medieval polity, and their spaces were defined by opposing spheres of influence, contact and connectivity. As these polities expanded and contracted, often as a result of military conquest and territorial annexation, their permeable edges became defined by transformative cultural landscapes. Here, the encounters between native or resident and incoming populations, from small elite groups through to larger numbers of migrants from diverse social backgrounds, resulted in varying degrees of cultural hybridity.
RRP: £60.00
The Watermills and Landscape of the River Great Ouse, Cambridgeshire Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781914427411
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2025
Illustrations: 50 b/w and color illustrations
Description:
The River Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire has a long history of water milling, stretching back to at least the 10th century and possibly to the Roman period. The authors use remote sensing (LiDAR), cartographic analysis, fieldwork, documents (especially contemporary litigation) and literary sources, to reveal new findings about this fascinating landscape. The Great Ouse’s watermills were recorded as the most valuable in England in the Domesday Survey.
RRP: £29.95
Exploring Death Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9798888571415
Pub Date: 15 May 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 180 b/w and color illustrations
Description:
Since the dawn of archaeology, the study of funerary contexts has provided invaluable insights into past societies, a trend that persists in contemporary research. Ongoing discoveries, site reevaluations, and advancements in techniques like DNA analysis continually reshape our understanding of the past.In the specific contexts we are addressing – the emergence of the first farming and herding communities in the Western Mediterranean – few regions in Europe display such systematic funerary practices.
RRP: £55.00
Harnessing Horses from Prehistory to History Cover Harnessing Horses from Prehistory to History Cover
Format: 
Pages: 330
ISBN: 9789464263367
Pub Date: 13 May 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 119fc / 12bw
Pages: 330
ISBN: 9789464263350
Pub Date: 13 May 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 119fc / 12bw
Description:
The human past is unimaginable without the horse. From our ancestors hunting and painting horses in the Upper Palaeolithic, to the earliest riders, the rise of equestrian empires, and the critical role of horses in war, settler colonialism, and modern state formation, human history is undeniably equestrian. Because of the deep and varied entanglements between people and horses, the study of horses of the past is inherently, and increasingly, interdisciplinary.
RRP: £120.00
RRP: £60.00
Butrint 8 Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9798888571323
Pub Date: 15 Apr 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Butrint Archaeological Monographs
Illustrations: 100 B/W and color illustrations
Description:
Butrint 8 is largely devoted to the Middle Byzantine archaeology discovered by the Butrint Foundation’s projects at Butrint itself, in its environs, and in the nearby port of Saranda, ancient Onchesmos. The volume includes a full report on the excavations in Butrint’s western defenses, built in the 6th century as a proteichisma, and maintained in use until the 9th century when tower 1 partly perished in a fire and tower 2 was abandoned. From these 9th-century levels came a major assemblage of traded and local ceramics as well as glass cullet.
RRP: £42.00
Obsidian Vessels in the Prehistoric and Early Historic Near East Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9798888570623
Pub Date: 15 Apr 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 360 b/w and color imgaes
Description:
Obsidian, a shiny volcanic glass, was first used to make vessels in the mid-sixth millennium BC in the Near East, although other stone had been exploited for vessel manufacture since the thirteenth millennium BC. Unlike the stone used to make the earliest vessels, which was acquired from local and regional sources, obsidian had to be obtained from volcanoes located hundreds of kilometers from where vessels were made and used. The obsidian from these sources had long been exploited for making tools and by the tenth millennium BC obsidian artifacts can be found in communities located far distant from the sources.
RRP: £45.00
Art, Image, Power and Place Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781789258981
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/W and colour
Description:
Early medieval stone sculptures survive across Europe: at waysides, in architectural settings and in churches and graveyards, and provide an exceptional source for understanding the aesthetics and beliefs of early medieval communities. England is no exception to this. Thousands of intact and fragmentary stone monuments survive from the seventh to eleventh centuries CE, evidencing the emergence of a rich Anglo-Saxon sculptural tradition in stone.
RRP: £50.00
Threads of Contact Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9798888571477
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 50 b/w drawings and photographs, 25 colour photographs, charts. maps
Description:
Textile tools offer a fascinating and yet intimate approach to ancient people. Textile production has been one of the core activities for millennia, spanning from domestic production to royal needs. Textiles were light and easy to transport goods, often exchanged over long distances.
RRP: £40.00
Education VIA Culture Cover Education VIA Culture Cover
Format: 
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9789464263305
Pub Date: 24 Mar 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 57fc / 14bw
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9789464263299
Pub Date: 24 Mar 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 57fc / 14bw
Description:
Heritage and Education are often cited together as two areas that could equally benefit from co-application and dialogue. This book includes some of the papers that were presented at the ‘Education VIA Culture’ conference, which was held online in December 2020. The chapters of this volume focus on how people can learn about heritage and engage with heritage through educational (formal or non-formal) processes.
RRP: £95.00
RRP: £45.00
Empire and excavation Cover Empire and excavation Cover
Format: 
Pages: 450
ISBN: 9789464271157
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 50fc / 100bw
Pages: 450
ISBN: 9789464271140
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 50fc / 100bw
Description:
The modern discipline of archaeology developed in tandem with the expansion of European imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries. Cyprus, ruled by Britain between 1878 and 1960, is a fascinating example of how archaeology was practiced and developed in a specific colonial context. This volume explores the mechanisms, the institutions and the characters who contributed to the development of Cypriot archaeology, often within a fraught political environment.
RRP: £125.00
RRP: £65.00
Canon and Proportion in Egyptian Art Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 134
ISBN: 9798888571224
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This facsimile reissue of the 1975 second edition of Iversen’s Canon and Proportion brings back into print a seminal work originally published in 1955. Iversen describes a canon – that is, a set of rules of proportions – advanced and used by the artists of Egypt. In order to interpret the stylistic message of the Egyptian system of proportion he undertakes a study of the principles of its construction, an analysis of its modules and presents an unambiguous numerical definition of the ratios governing its units and parts, demonstrating its use with illustrated examples.
RRP: £34.99
Egyptian Sculpture Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 134
ISBN: 9798888571200
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This facsimile reissue of Anthea Page’s catalog of the stone and wooden statuary in the Petrie Museum makes available again a major corpus of material. The bulk of statuary in the museum was purchased since the finest sculpture from Petrie’s own excavations rightly went to Cairo and other museums. While the sculpture in his own collection covers the whole length of Egyptian dynastic history illustrating many different schools and qualities of workmanship, it does not provide a comprehensive view of the art of the Egyptian sculptor.
RRP: £34.99
Egyptian Stelae, Reliefs and Paintings from the Petrie Collection Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 138
ISBN: 9798888571248
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This is a facsimile reissue of part I of H.M. Stewart’s three part complete catalogue of the inscribed stelae, reliefs and paintings acquired by Flinders Petrie from his many Egyptian excavations and intended as a teaching collection.
RRP: £34.99
Egyptian Stelae, Reliefs and Paintings from the Petrie Collection Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 110
ISBN: 9798888571286
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2025
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This is a facsimile reissue of part III of H.M Stewart’s three part complete catalogue of the inscribed stelae, reliefs and paintings acquired by Flinders Petrie from his many Egyptian excavations and intended as a teaching collection. Over 140 monuments, primarily of the Late Period are described, translated and illustrated with comments on techniques and materials, and details of provenance, date and bibliographical references.
RRP: £24.95
Sitting on the fence: Negotiating archaeology, anthropology and philosophy Cover Sitting on the fence: Negotiating archaeology, anthropology and philosophy Cover
Format: 
Pages: 222
ISBN: 9789464263213
Pub Date: 14 Mar 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia
Illustrations: 22fc / 7bw
Pages: 222
ISBN: 9789464263206
Pub Date: 14 Mar 2025
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia
Illustrations: 22fc / 7bw
Description:
This volume celebrates the academic life of prof. Raymond Corbey. It gathers contributions by diverse scholars and professionals from both science and society to engage with a range of key topics Raymond has grappled with at different stages of his capricious career.
RRP: £95.00
RRP: £40.00