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.

The Earlier Iron Age in Britain and the Near Continent Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 416
ISBN: 9781785709098
Pub Date: 08 Sep 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The Earlier Iron Age (c. 800-400 BC) has often eluded attention in British Iron Age studies. Traditionally, we have been enticed by the wealth of material from the later part of the millennium and by developments in southern England in particular, culminating in the arrival of the Romans.
The Later Iron Age in Britain and Beyond Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 536
ISBN: 9781785709104
Pub Date: 08 Sep 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The nature and causes of the transformation in settlement, social structure, and material culture that occurred in Britain during the Later Iron Age (c. 400-300 BC to the Roman conquest) have long been a focus of research. In the past, however, there was a tendency for attention to be directed mostly to southern England and the increased manifestations of Gaulish and Roman influence apparent there towards the end of this period.
Bodies of Clay Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781785706967
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
Since the earliest use of pottery, vessels have been associated with both the general shape and specific parts of the human body. The production of human-shaped pottery might be understood as one element of the spectrum of figural art in prehistoric communities. The idea of studying anthropomorphic pottery and the return of human beings into a body made of clay, which forms the core theme of this collection of 12 papers, stems from work on anthropomorphic features of Neolithic communities between the Near East and Europe.
RRP: £38.00
Children, Death and Burial Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
ISBN: 9781785707124
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Childhood in the Past Monograph
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
Children, Death and Burials assembles a panorama of studies with a focus on juvenile burials; the 16 papers have a wide geographic and temporal breadth and represent a range of methodological approaches. All have a similar objective in mind, however, namely to understand how children were treated in death by different cultures in the past; to gain insights concerning the roles of children of different ages in their respective societies and to find evidence of the nature of past adult–child relationships and interactions across the life course. The contextualisation and integration of the data collected, both in the field and in the laboratory, enables more nuanced understandings to be gained in relation to the experiences of the young in the past.
Not Just for Show Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781785706929
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
Beads, beadwork, and personal ornaments are made of diverse materials such as shell, bone, stones, minerals, and composite materials. Their exploration from geographical and chronological settings around the world offers a glimpse at some of the cutting edge research within the fast growing field of personal ornaments in humanities’ past. Recent studies are based on a variety of analytical procedures that highlight humankind’s technological advances, exchange networks, mortuary practices, and symbol-laden beliefs.
Puspika: Tracing Ancient India Through Texts and Traditions Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 182
ISBN: 9781785707568
Pub Date: 31 Aug 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Puspika: Tracing Ancient India through Texts and Traditions
Illustrations: b/w figures
Description:
Puṣpikā Volume 4 contains the proceedings of the seventh International Indology Graduate Research Symposium (Leiden 2015). The fourteen papers included here cover a rich variety of topics related to the intellectual traditions of South Asia such as grammar, poetry and philosophy, examined from a plurality of disciplinary perspectives, with a particular emphasis on philology, history and sociology. The first four articles of focus on the Sanskrit language, from the strictly linguistic and historical perspective to the wider political issue of its uses and abuses.
Neolithic Stepping Stones Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781785703478
Pub Date: 31 Jul 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
The ‘western seaways’ are an arc of sea extending from the Channel Islands in the south, through the Isles of Scilly around to Orkney in the north. This maritime zone has long been seen as a crucial corridor of interaction during later prehistory. Connections across it potentially led, for example, to the eventual arrival of the Neolithic in Britain, almost 1000 years after it arrived on the near continent.
Archaeological Sciences 1995 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9781785708053
Pub Date: 31 Jul 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: illus throughout
Description:
A huge collection of papers on scientific analysis in archaeology from a conference held in Liverpool in 1995. Papers are grouped under ten headings: Scientific analysis of Petrology (3 papers); of Glass (five papers); of Ceramics (7 papers); Metallurgy (9 papers); Chronological Studies (9 papers); Dendrochronological Studies (3 papers); The Study of Ancient Enviroments (16 papers); Remote Sensing (2 papers); The Analysis of Human Remains (5 papers) and Perspectives on Human Evolution and Early Hominid Artefacts (9 papers). Subjects studied include Stonehenge dolerites, early Egyptian glass, Greek Archaic transport amphorae, Roman brooches, South Indian bronzes, dendrochronological datings of Viking ships, phytolith analysis from the Indus Valley, Pakistan, the microflora of the Milos catacombs, Greece and Medieval glass making technology.
Archaeologies of Gender and Violence Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 252
ISBN: 9781785706882
Pub Date: 31 Jul 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
Uroš Matić and Bo Jensen have brought together a team of both young and senior researches from many different countries in this first volume that aims to explore the complex intersection between archaeology, gender and violence. Papers range from theoretical discussions on previous approaches to gender and violence and the ethical necessity to address these questions today, to case studies dealing on gender and violence from prehistoric to early medieval Europe, but also including studies on ancient Egypt, Persia and Peru. The contributors deal both with representations of violence and its gendered background in images and text, and with bioarchaeological evidence for violence and trauma with a gendered background.
Jerusalem Throne Games Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781785706165
Pub Date: 24 Jul 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
Jerusalem 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.
RRP: £30.00
Empire State Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781785706585
Pub Date: 21 Jul 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The armed forces of Rome, particularly those of the later Republic and Principate, are rightly regarded as some of the finest military formations ever to engage in warfare. Less well known however is their use by the State as tools for such non-military activities in political, economic and social contexts. In this capacity they were central instruments for the Emperor to ensure the smooth running of the Empire.
Materialising Roman Histories Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 232
ISBN: 9781785706769
Pub Date: 11 Jul 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: University of Cambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology Monographs
Description:
The Roman period witnessed massive changes in the human-material environment, from monumentalised cityscapes to standardised low-value artefacts like pottery. This book explores new perspectives to understand this Roman ‘object boom’ and its impact on Roman history. In particular, the book’s international contributors question the traditional dominance of ‘representation’ in Roman archaeology, whereby objects have come to stand for social phenomena such as status, facets of group identity, or notions like Romanisation and economic growth.
RRP: £40.00
Current Research in Egyptology 17 (2016) Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 350
ISBN: 9781785706004
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Current Research in Egyptology
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
This volume reflects the most recent state of research on ancient Egypt presented and discussed at the international conference Current Research in Egyptology XVII, May 2016. Nine papers are arranged in chronological order covering the wide time span from the Predynastic till the Greco-Roman Period, with the remaining five considering more general thematic, theoretical, and cross-cultural topics. Papers re-examine the archives from early excavations of Predynastic tombs in the light of modern research; discuss various types of object from different periods; consider the roles of travelling artists, regional artistic schools styles, and the mobility of ancient high-skilled craftsmen.
From Cooking Vessels to Cultural Practices in the Late Bronze Age Aegean Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 216
ISBN: 9781785706325
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
Late Bronze Age Aegean cooking vessels illuminate prehistoric cultures, foodways, social interactions, and communication systems. While many scholars have focused on the utility of painted fineware vessels for chronological purposes, the contributors to this volume maintain that cooking wares have the potential to answer not only chronological but also economic, political, and social questions when analysed and contrasted with assemblages from different sites or chronological periods. The text is dedicated entirely to prehistoric cooking vessels, compiles evidence from a wide range of Greek sites and incorporates new methodologies and evidence.
RRP: £38.00
Molluscs in Archaeology Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9781785706080
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The subject of ‘Molluscs in Archaeology’ has not been dealt with collectively for several decades as most previous volumes in this subject area have been confined to studies of either land or marine molluscs, or mollusc shells as artefacts. The 23 specially commissioned papers presented here address many aspects of molluscs in archaeology. Marine molluscs are a common find on archaeological sites, where they may represent food waste or their shells having been utilised as tools, artefacts and ornaments.
The Ancient Greek Farmstead Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781785706400
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The interpretation of archaeological remains as farmsteads has met with much debate in scholarship regarding their role, identification, and even their existence. Despite the difficult nature of scholarship surrounding farmsteads, this site type is repeatedly used to describe small sites in the countryside which have varying evidence of domestic, storage, and agricultural activity. The aim of this book is to engage with the archaeological and textual data for farmsteads dating to the Classical–Hellenistic period of mainland Greece, with the purpose of understanding how these sites fulfilled agricultural roles as centres for occupation, storage, and processing for those working the land.