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: 293
ISBN: 9781842170588
Pub Date: 18 Jan 2002
Illustrations: b/w figs and pls throughout, 22 col pls
Description:
The twenty-five papers, taken from a Cardiff conference in 1998, are concerned with Insular art in its broadest sense, encompassing studies of metalwork, manuscripts, sculpture and textiles, both recent discoveries and new investigations of well-known objects. They include material associated with Anglo-Saxon England as well as early Medieval Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and discoveries of Insular metalwork in Scandinavia. They are divided into five themes which reflect the many recent advances in the study of Insular art.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781842170564
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2001
Illustrations: b/w illus and figs throughout
Description:
This is a volume no Palaeolithic archaeologist should be without. It is offered to Derek Roe by his friends and colleagues as a tribute to his enthusiasm, support and encouragement over many years. The twenty-seven papers range from Africa to the Near East and beyond, to Kazakhstan and Korea, and across southern Europe to Britain, the Thames Valley, East Anglia and Pontnewydd.
The list of authors and the range of topics they write about are a reflection of Derek Roe's influence throughout the Palaeolithic world.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 233
ISBN: 9781842170526
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2001
Illustrations: b/w figs and pls
Description:
This first volume in a series of works on Tell Kosak Shamali focuses on the Chalcolithic deposits at the site, or the Ubaid period. Located on the east bank of the Euphrates the site held an important strategic position and one which had a diverse set of resources available. Investigated since the 1980s and most recently by the University of Tokyo, this volume reports on the results of the excavations, detailing the geographical and cultural setting of the site, the architecture and stratigraphy, the radiocarbon dates, the nature of the finds and the history of the site in the Palaeolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic.
Evidence from Kosak Shamali provides important insights into the transition from Neolithic agrarian societies to more complex, increasingly urban societies of the Chalcolithic.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 120
ISBN: 9781842170168
Pub Date: 30 Oct 2001
Description:
The University Orator's job is to create formal presentations, in Latin, to mark historic moments in academic life or, most commonly, to present the honorary degrees which Oxford periodically awards to leading international figures. The distinguished Classical scholar Godfrey Bond, who held the post of Orator between 1980 and 1992, was a master at creating concise biographical portraits in clear, beautifully-constructed Latin. This book contains a collection of his addresses to famous figures, including Kiri te Kanawa, Cardinal Basil Hume, King Juan Carlos of Spain, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Prince Naruhito of Japan, Joseph Brodsky and Sir Vidia Naipaul.
In all of these elegant orations, the charm and the wit of the man who translated jumbo jets as balanenae ballistariae (`catapulted whales') shines through.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781842170489
Pub Date: 25 Oct 2001
Series: WARP Occasional Papers
Illustrations: b/w figs and illus
Description:
In rare instances prehistoric peoples and/or their most fragile creations are preserved when they become accidentally or intentionally entombed in environments that have remained constantly wet, dry, or frozen. The finds are particularly informative when skeletons retain flesh, internal organs, and clothes, and when they are accompanied by items of personal adornment or weaponry made of wood, cordage or bone in addition to the more common stone and pottery objects. Well-known examples of this kind of survival include the bog-bodies of northern Europe, the Iceman of the Alps, Egyptian and Peruvian mummies, Swiss lake settlements, and in North America, the Ozette Village on the Olympic Peninsula, and Key Marco on Florida's lower Gulf Coast.
These organic materials provide an invaluable window on the past, yet the fact that wetlands contain thousands of years of environmental and cultural history has not risen to the consciousness of the public, the scientific community, or governments. These twenty-seven papers on wetland research across the world, from America, Europe and Australasia, aim to raise the profile of these fragile environments and the potential they have for shedding light on the past.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 280
ISBN: 9781842170335
Pub Date: 01 Aug 2001
Illustrations: many b/w figs and pls
Description:
The 22nd British Museum Classical Colloquium, held in December 1998, was dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Olivier Masson. Throughout his long career his over-riding enthusiasm was in the study of the archaeological heritage of Cyprus, in particular through the collection of the British Museum. Contributors, from Europe and America, write about the major sites, the convictions and motives of those who investigated them, the political background, the movement of antiquities to major European museums and the ensuing rivalry between these institutions.
The discussions show that we can, and indeed must, learn from the triumphs and the mistakes of the 19th century with regard to how we study, exploit and preserve a country's archaeological heritage. The book is a major contribution to the historiography of Cypriot studies.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 184
ISBN: 9781842170441
Pub Date: 01 Aug 2001
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
The results of recent archaeological excavation, systematic rural survey and detailed studies of pottery distributions have revealed the extent and complexities of the economy in the eastern empire. The eight papers in this volume demonstrate this complexity and prosperity, examining several types of product and how the economy evolved over time.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781842170212
Pub Date: 01 Apr 2001
Series: Lincoln Archaeology Studies
Illustrations: many b/w pls
Description:
The suburb of Wigford lies near the heart of the historic city of Lincoln. Before excavations began in 1972, nothing was known of the prehistory of the area and so the arrival of the Roman army represented the first historic event. This volume publishes the results of the excavation of several sites, made possible by a series of urban development schemes.
Each of the excavations differed in the extent and depth of the stratigraphy uncovered and each belonged to a different period, from the Iron Age to post-medieval.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 71
ISBN: 9781842170120
Pub Date: 01 Feb 2001
Series: Archaeology Data Service & Digital Antiquity Guides to Good Practice
Description:
A basic guide to transferring texts and archiving them (books, manuscripts) into electronic form or similar digital resources, with lots of pointers to specialised information.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781842170137
Pub Date: 01 Feb 2001
Series: Archaeology Data Service & Digital Antiquity Guides to Good Practice
Description:
This guide provides advice on legal issues such as Copyright and Rights Management when creating and using digital picture resources, technical advice on software and producing good quality images, standards for data documentation, project management, storage and preservation, and innovative creative techniques, including web design and virtual reality.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 120
ISBN: 9781900188548
Pub Date: 01 Jan 2001
Series: Dakhleh Oasis Papers
Description:
The first Dakhleh Oasis Project seminar held at Durham University in 1994 was the occasion for discussion of topics ranging from the Pleistocene to paleoepidemiology and papyri.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 210
ISBN: 9781842170274
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2000
Series: Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Illustrations: b/w figs
Description:
Plant-centred issues are fundamental in the definitions and explanations of the Neolithic as a phenomenon.The meeting of the Neolithic Studies Group from which this volume developed aimed to provide a forum for the wide range of approaches now applied to Neolithic archaeobotany at site and landscape scales of resolution.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781842170090
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2000
Description:
Twelve papers presented by Michael Wilks between 1965 and his death in 1999, two of which are published here for the first time. Wilks' research into Wyclif and 14th-century England was very much rooted in Wyclif's own prolific writings, a perspective that differed from the more traditional Reformation viewpoint. The papers trace Wyclif's early history in northern England and Oxford and ask why the established and favoured civil servant turned against Edward III and Richard II and died a traitor and heretic.
Wilks' detailed analysis of Wyclif's Latin texts, with numerous extracts and copious notes, presents Wyclif's demands for reform and his determined campaign against the church and the religious orders. Wyclif's name was inevitably linked with the Peasants' Revolt, even though it attacked his patron and former defender John of Gaunt, but even in exile he continued his fight with attacks on both the Schism popes. The essays are the result of 35 years of evolving ideas and opinions but all reflect the great learning and energy of Wilks' scholarship.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781842170076
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2000
Series: TRAC
Description:
Thirteen papers from the annual TRAC conference, now in its ninth year. With a range of subject matters, they reflect the diversity of research being carried out.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 120
ISBN: 9781842170045
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2000
Series: Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology
Description:
Papers from the 1993 Association for Environmental Archaeology conference at Durham. The themes of the conference were taphonomy and interpretation, to encourage spreakers to go beyond data acquisition and description. This volume looks at how material (pollen, insects, bones etc.
) came to be deposited in the context from which they were recovered), how surviving material might compare with what existed in the past. Furthermore, how our methodologies can bias our results and how material might be interpreted in terms of past human activities and environmental processes. These themes are relevant to all archaeological and palaeo-ecological enquireies, regardless of the type of material studied. The archaeological periods studied range from the Bronze Age to the 19th century AD and include rural, urban and buiral sites. Several contributors recommend the use of multiple lines of enquiry as a means of counteracting the biases inherent in any one type approach or group of material. Several papers are concerned with the nature of of the recovered archaeological data, looking for patterns that might be interpretable in terms of past environments or taphonomic process.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 138
ISBN: 9781842170038
Pub Date: 01 Dec 2000
Illustrations: drawings and pls
Description:
Excavations at Sumburgh Airport in the 1960s and 70s discovered stone-built houses of the later Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. This report describes the results of the excavations (stone walls, paved areas, hearths, cubicles) and of the analysis of the stratigraphy and the position of the artefacts. It shows how one house was added to the other, and how both were then substantially modified.
Comparison with other sites shows that the two-house unit was a feature of the later Bronze Age in Shetland in contrast to earlier Bronze Age oval houses and later Iron Age circular houses divided by radial piers, and that longevity of occupation was usual with the three house forms suceeding each other as here at Sumburgh.
