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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.

Interpreting Medieval Effigies Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 262
ISBN: 9781789256857
Pub Date: 15 Jul 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This innovative study examines and analyses the wealth of evidence provided by the monumental effigies of Yorkshire, from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including some of very high sculptural merit. More than 200 examples survive from the historic county in varying states of preservation. Together, they present a picture of the people able to afford them, at a time when the county was frequently at the forefront of national politics and administration, during the Scottish wars.
Women and Weapons in the Viking World Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9781789256659
Pub Date: 15 Jul 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 21 colour and 58 b/w illustrations
Description:
The Viking Age (c. 750-1050 AD) is conventionally seen as a tumultuous time when hordes of fierce warriors from Scandinavia wreaked havoc across the European continent and when Norse merchants travelled to distant corners of the world in pursuit of slaves, silver, and exotic commodities. Until relatively recently, archaeologists and textual scholars had the tendency to weave a largely male-dominated image of this pivotal period in world history, dismissing or substantially downplaying women's roles in Norse society.
Lincoln Castle Revealed Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781789257359
Pub Date: 23 Jun 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: Colour
Description:
This highly-illustrated book reveals a brand-new story of the royal castle of Lincoln – how it was imposed on the late Anglo-Saxon town and how it developed over the next 900 years in the hands of the king or his aristocratic associates. Today, we have been left a surviving monument of three great towers, each with its own biography. Led by FAS Heritage, archaeologists, architectural historians and a large cohort of the general public have come together to produce a revealing and accessible account of the story of Lincoln Castle; in doing so, we gain further insight into the history, culture and society of medieval England.
A Welsh Landscape through Time Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 240
ISBN: 9781789256895
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: Colour and b/w
Description:
Holy Island is a small island just off the west coast of Anglesey, North Wales, which is rich in archaeology of all periods. Between 2006 and 2010, archaeological excavations in advance of a major Welsh Government development site, Parc Cybi, enabled extensive study of the island’s past. Over 20 hectares were investigated, revealing a busy and complex archaeological landscape, which could be seen evolving from the Mesolithic period through to the present day.
Bathhouses in Iudaea/Syria-Palaestina and Provincia Arabia from Herod the Great to the Umayyads Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
ISBN: 9781789256574
Pub Date: 05 Jun 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/w and colour
Description:
Bathing culture was one of the pillars of Roman society and bathhouses are one of the largest categories of a particular type of construction excavated in the Roman world. The large number of surviving remains and their regional variety make bathhouses vital for the study of the local societies in the Roman-Byzantine period. This book presents the archaeological evidence of close to 200 Roman-style bathhouses from the region of Iudaea/Syria-Palaestina and Provincia Arabia, part of the provinces of the Roman East, constructed from the reign of Herod the Great (second half of the 1st century BCE) to the end of the Umayyad rule (mid-8th century CE).
The Birsay Bay Project Volume 3 Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 720
ISBN: 9781789256079
Pub Date: 15 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: Colour
Description:
The Brough of Birsay was the power-centre of the Viking earldom of Orkney and is one of Historic Environment Scotland’s key monuments and visitor attractions on the islands. This publication is the culmination of 60 years of investigations that took place on the site between 1954 and 2014.This new volume incorporates comprehensive accounts of work undertaken by Dr Ralegh Radford and Mr Stewart Cruden between 1954 and 1964, excavations by the Viking and Early Settlement Research Project under the direction of the author on site between 1974 and 1981, a rescue excavation in 1993, a geophysical survey in 2007 and archival research up to 2014.
RRP: £55.00
The Sacred Body Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781789255188
Pub Date: 15 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Material Religion in Antiquity
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
The human body serves as a symbolic bridge between communities of the living and the divine. This is clearly evident in mythological stories that recount the creation of humans by deities within ancient and contemporaneous societies across a very broad geographical environment. In certain circumstances, parts of selected humans can become an ideal proxy for connecting with the supernatural, as demonstrated by the cult of human skulls in Near Eastern Neolithic communities, as well as the cult of relics of Christian saints from the early Christian era.
Journal of Roman Pottery Studies - Volume 18 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781789255874
Pub Date: 15 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Journal of Roman Pottery Studies
Illustrations: B/w and colour
Description:
The Journal of Roman Pottery Studies continues to present a range of important new research in the field by both established and early career scholars. Volume XVIII has a strong theme on pottery production with papers on kiln sites, mortaria and late Roman pottery production in East Anglia and at a small town in Belgium. A major new third century assemblage from civitas Cananefatium in South Holland is presented.
Temporary Palaces Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781789256611
Pub Date: 15 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Oxbow Insights in Archaeology
Illustrations: B/w
Description:
The Great Houses of the prehistoric and early medieval periods were enormous structures whose forms were modelled on those of domestic dwellings. Most were built of wood rather than stone; they were used over comparatively short periods; they were frequently replaced in the same positions; and some were associated with exceptional groups of artefacts. Their construction made considerable demands on human labour and approached the limits of what was possible at the time.
RRP: £16.99
Markets and Exchanges in Pre-Modern and Traditional Societies Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 240
ISBN: 9781789256116
Pub Date: 15 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Ancient Societies (MAtAS)
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
Markets emerge in recent historical research as important spheres of economic interaction in ancient societies. In the case of ancient Egypt, traditional models imagined an all-encompassing centralized, bureaucratic economy that left practically no place for market transactions, as many surviving documents only described the activities of the royal palace and of huge institutions, mainly temples. Yet scattered references in the sources reveal that markets and traders were crucial actors in the economic life of ancient Egypt.
RRP: £45.00
Representations Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781789256413
Pub Date: 15 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology
Illustrations: B/w and colour
Description:
This volume presents a series of reflections on modes of communication in the Bronze Age Aegean, drawing on papers presented at two round table workshops of the Sheffield Centre for Aegean Archaeology on 'Technologies of Representation' and 'Writing and Non-Writing in the Bronze Age Aegean'. Each was designed to capture current developments in these interrelated research areas and also to help elide boundaries between 'science-based' and 'humanities-based' approaches, and between those focused on written communication (especially its content) and those interested in broader modes of communication. Contributions are arranged thematically in three groups: the first concerns primarily non-written communication, the third mainly written communication, while the second blurs this somewhat arbitrary distinction.
Interrogating Networks Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781789256277
Pub Date: 06 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/w
Description:
Network theory and methodologies have become central to exploring and explaining social, economic and political relationships and connections in past societies. However, in archaeology, the deployment of networks has sometimes been more descriptive than analytical. Methodologies have often depended upon underlying assumptions which inevitably simplify relationships that were complex and multi-faceted.
RRP: £16.95
Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781789255959
Pub Date: 06 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/w and colour
Description:
Objects of adornment have been a subject of archaeological, historical, and ethnographic study for well over a century. Within archaeology, personal ornaments have traditionally been viewed as decorative embellishments associated with status and wealth, materializations of power relations and social strategies, or markers of underlying social categories such as those related to gender, class, and ethnic affiliation. Personal Adornment and the Construction of Identity seeks to understand these artefacts not as signals of steady, pre-existing cultural units and relations, but as important components in the active and contingent constitution of identities.
Textile Activity and Cultural Identity in Sicily Between the Late Bronze Age and Archaic Period Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781789255997
Pub Date: 06 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Ancient Textiles
Illustrations: B/w and colour
Description:
Clothing was an essential part of material culture in ancient societies both as a form of body protection and as house equipment. Besides a practical function, textiles played a crucial role in communicating various aspects of social and personal identity. Based largely on the analysis of textile tools, this book is intended to be the first systematic attempt at reconstructing textile culture in ancient Sicily.
Towards a Social Bioarchaeology of the Mycenaean Period Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9781789254822
Pub Date: 06 May 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour
Description:
This book investigates the complex relationship between funerary treatment and wider social dynamics through a contextual analysis of human skeletal remains and associated mortuary data from Voudeni, an important Mycenaean (1450-1050 BC) chamber tomb cemetery in Achaea, Greece. Voudeni is one of the most significant sites of Achaea, thoroughly investigated under the direction of the Honorary General Director of Antiquities, Dr Lazaros Kolonas. Over 60 chamber tombs, spanning the entire Late Helladic III period, have been excavated, yielding an unprecedented wealth of biocultural information.
RRP: £40.00
Growing Up in the Ice Age Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781789252941
Pub Date: 30 Apr 2021
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w
Description:
In prehistoric societies children comprised 40-65% of the population, yet by default, our ancestral landscapes are peopled by adults who hunt, gather, fish, knap tools and make art. But these adults were also parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who had to make space physically, emotionally, intellectually and cognitively for the infants, children and adolescents around them. Growing Up in the Ice Age is a timely and evidence-based look at the lived lives of Paleolithic children and the communities of which they were a part.
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