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.
Regional Perspectives on Neolithic Pit Deposition Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
ISBN: 9781842174685
Pub Date: 14 Dec 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Illustrations: 74 b/w illus
Description:
The rise to prominence of pits within narratives of the British and Irish Neolithic is well-documented in recent literature. Pits have been cropping up in excavations for centuries, resulting in a very broad spectrum of interpretations but three main factors have led to the recent change in our perception and representation of these features: a broad shift in people's expectations as to what a Neolithic settlement should be; the development of the concept of 'structured deposition', within which pits have played a key role; and a dramatic rise in the number of pits actually known about. Development-led archaeology, and the often very large areas its excavations expose, has simply revealed many more pits.
Roman Imperial Armour Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180
ISBN: 9781842174357
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 148 b/w & colour illus, 27 tables
Description:
The Roman Empire depended on the power of its armies to defend and extend the imperial borders, enabling it to dominate much of Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. Success was, in large part, founded on well-trained, well-disciplined soldiers who were equipped with the most advanced arms and armour available at that time. This is the story of the production of that armour.
RRP: £25.00
Becoming European Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781842174500
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: col & b/w illus
Description:
It can be argued that elements of European heritage can be identified not only as a national strategy of the present but also as a process in prehistory - the cultural and political transformations of the third millennium BC in European prehistory sparking off this process. These transformations initiated the processes and mechanisms that led up to the complex political, social and cultural institutions of the first half of the second millennium BC. From this time on, an authentic historical continuum leading towards present-day society can be identified.
Pilgrimage in Early Christian Jordan Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 264
ISBN: 9780977409495
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
An interest in places of pilgrimage is very much a part of the life of many people in the modern world. For Christians, it is the Holy Land that holds specific interest - the area where the events described in the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testament, are located. This volume focuses on early Christian pilgrimage in Jordan, the region east of the Jordan River which has so far been little explored by pilgrims and tourists to the Holy Land.
RRP: £26.00
Heritage Transformed Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 128
ISBN: 9781842174579
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
How does "heritage" become objectified within public institutions and representative of a national past? This book proposes a model for this process and contains five case studies that explore variety in the transformation of heritage. The model proposes that heritage is transformed from concept to object and the agency of change is "management".
RRP: £40.00
Bringing Carthage Home Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 264
ISBN: 9781842179925
Pub Date: 04 Oct 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: UBC Studies in the Ancient World
Illustrations: 137 b/w & 9 colour illus
Description:
Adorning the north-west staircase in the British Museum is a group of brightly coloured figured mosaic pavements. Most were excavated for the Museum between 1856 and 1859 at Carthage, in what is now Tunisia, by a dilettante called Nathan Davis; the work was funded by the Foreign Office of the British Government. This book recounts for the first time the extraordinary story behind this pioneering enterprise and the political and cultural rivalry between representatives of the colonial powers as they asserted their rights to explore the buried remains of one of the ancient world's greatest cities.
Dynamics of Neolithisation in Europe Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781842179994
Pub Date: 04 Oct 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
Dynamics of Neolithisation examines the development of early agriculture in Neolithic Europe, drawing on the work of the late Professor Andrew Sherratt. His untimely death coincided with an important period of research that moved beyond searching for singular causal mechanisms behind the "neolithisation" of Europe in favour of developing a better understanding of the complex interrelationships of cultural, ecological, economic and social factors. Andrew Sherratt's work is significant because it developed models for integrating the different evidential components and analytical scales involved in the prehistoric development of European agriculture.
The Death of Archaeological Theory? Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 96
ISBN: 9781842174463
Pub Date: 15 Sep 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 9 b/w illus
Description:
The Death of Archaeological Theory? addresses the provocative subject of whether it is time to discount the burden of somewhat dogmatic theory and ideology that has defined archaeological debate and shaped archaeology over the last 25 years. Seven chapters meet this controversial subject head on, also assessing where archaeological theory is now, and future directions.
RRP: £12.95
Butrint 3 Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 374
ISBN: 9781842179802
Pub Date: 08 Sep 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Butrint Archaeological Monographs
Illustrations: c.425 b/w and 60 col illus
Description:
This engaging and well-illustrated volume describes the excavations of a large urban sector, the so-called Triconch Palace, of the Adriatic seaport of Butrint. In so doing it adds to the new paradigm for the development of Roman towns in the Mediterranean. The book traces the changing nature of this rich and varied area - from 2nd-century Roman townhouses, to a 4th-century elite domus, to a Mid Byzantine trading area to late medieval allotments - and reveals the rhythms of Butrint and its Mediterranean connections.
War and Worship Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842174289
Pub Date: 30 Aug 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 60 b/w & colour illus
Description:
War and Worship concerns textile deposits from the bog sites of Thorsberg in Germany and Nydam, Vimose and Illerup Ådal in Denmark. All four sites are well-known for containing a substantial amount of archaeological materials, particularly weapons, but they also contain, as integral parts of the weapon deposits, a smaller number of preserved textiles, which nevertheless constitute outstanding assemblages. With the exception of Thorsberg, publications dealing particularly with textiles from weapon deposits are almost non-existent.
Guess Who's Coming To Dinner Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781842179857
Pub Date: 30 Aug 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner examines how specific types of food were prepared and eaten during feasting rituals in prehistoric Europe and the Near East. Such rituals allowed people to build and maintain their power and prestige and to maintain or contest the status quo. At the same time, they also contributed to the inner cohesion and sense of community of a group.
Flint and Stone in the Neolithic Period Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9781842174203
Pub Date: 30 Aug 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
Lithic artefacts were an intrinsic part of Neolithic life both in terms of everyday practical use and in ritual/symbolic mode. Archaeologists and prehistorians studying the Neolithic period recognise this, and accordingly, strive to maximise relevant data recovery and subsequently exploit the available data to the full. Fulfilling these ambitions requires specialist input, which not only comes from lithic analysts themselves, but also draws on a wide range of expertise from across archaeology and other disciplines and practices.
Umm al-Biyara Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781842174395
Pub Date: 26 Aug 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Levant Supplementary Series
Illustrations: 183 b/w illus
Description:
Umm al-Biyara, the highest mountain in Petra, southern Jordan, was the first Iron Age Edomite site to be extensively excavated. It was a domestic, unwalled site of stone-built longhouses dating to the 7th-6th centuries BCE. The stratigraphy, pottery, small finds and inscribed material, including the important bulla of Qos-Gabr, King of Edom are described, supplemented by chapters on the use of space and a landscape study of mountain-top sites in the Petra region.
RRP: £35.00
St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 944
ISBN: 9781842173251
Pub Date: 02 Aug 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: col & b/w illus, foldouts, 2-part set
Description:
St Peter's, Barton-upon-Humber, is a redundant medieval church in the care of English Heritage. As a result of a major programme of research carried out between 1978 and 2007, it is now the most intensively studied parish church in the UK. Excavations between 1978 and 1984 investigated most of the interior of the building, as well as a swathe of churchyard around its exterior.
Knowledge is Light Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 128
ISBN: 9781842174487
Pub Date: 15 Jul 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: ASTENE Publications
Illustrations: 23 col & b/w illus
Description:
For thousands of years travellers wandered to, and spread out through, Egypt and the Near East, seeking trade, adventure and knowledge. For centuries travellers to - and from - the Near East carried knowledge with them and then carried home the new knowledge acquired in the region. And knowledge, as the Arabic proverb states, is light.
RRP: £20.00
Archaeomalacology Revisited Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 104
ISBN: 9781842174364
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w & col illus
Description:
The past decade has witnessed a remarkable momentum in the advancement of archaeomalacological research but there is still a lot of room for progress. These ten papers are the second published proceedings of the archaeomalacology sessions organised by ICAZ (Mexico City, 2006). The contributions revisit important archaeological issues such as provenance of raw materials, dye production and the secondary uses of industrial shell waste, the role of shell artefacts in the symbolic world of diverse civilisations, technology and early cross-regional exchange networks.
RRP: £32.00