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.

Onomatologos Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 680
ISBN: 9781842179826
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
onomatologos is a term used in later antiquity to describe eminent lexicographers such as Hesychius and Pollux as 'collectors of words', but here it is used as the title for a major volume of papers prepared in honour of Elaine Matthews, recently retired long-serving editor of the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names ( LGPN ): a 'collector of names'. The LGPN , conceived by Peter Fraser, has had as its primary aim the documentation on a geographical basis of the personal names attested between the earliest use of the Greek alphabet (c. 750 BC) and the early seventh century AD throughout the Hellenic and hellenized world, wherever the Greek language and script was used.
RRP: £90.00
Body Parts and Bodies Whole Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 176
ISBN: 9781842174029
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 89 b/w illus
Description:
This volume grew out of an interdisciplinary discussion held in the context of the Leverhulme-funded project 'Changing Beliefs in the Human Body', through which the image of the body in pieces soon emerged as a potent site of attitudes about the body and associated practices in many periods. Archaeologists routinely encounter parts of human and animal bodies in their excavations. Such fragmentary evidence has often been created through accidental damage and the passage of time - nevertheless, it can also signify a deliberate and meaningful act of fragmentation.
The Lantern Tower of Westminster Abbey 1060-2010 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 112
ISBN: 9781842179796
Pub Date: 20 May 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: full colour illus throughout
Description:
Westminster Abbey is one of the most important and well-known medieval buildings in Europe but, despite being studied by generations of scholars, there is still much to learn about its history and architecture. The lantern over the centre of the church is a case in point. Edward the Confessor built a great tower here, which is depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry.
The Archaeology of Politics and Power Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 488
ISBN: 9781842173527
Pub Date: 13 May 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
Archaeology is not just about the past, but the present and future too. Much of our present condition and future prospects are inevitably bound up with what states do and what they fail to do. To understand the inner-workings and motivations of states one must understand how and why they came into existence in the first place.
Carving a Future for British Rock Art Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 240
ISBN: 9781842173640
Pub Date: 04 May 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 111 b/w & colour illus, 15 tables
Description:
Over the last few years, the ways in which we perceive and document rock art have shifted irreversibly. Prehistoric rock art played little part in the development of British and Irish archaeology and was not recognised until the 19th century, when its equivalents in Scandinavia and the Iberian Peninsula were already well known. Previously considered a fringe activity and the work of amateur archaeologists, over the last 30 years the situation has improved considerably, and the appearance of books such as this signify the change.
The Development of Pre-State Communities in the Ancient Near East Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781842174074
Pub Date: 30 Apr 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: BANEA monograph Series
Illustrations: 79 b/w illus, 19 tables
Description:
This book explores the dynamics of small-scale societies in the ancient Near East by examining the ways in which particular communities functioned and interacted and by moving beyond the broad neo-evolutionary models of social change which have characterised many earlier approaches. By focusing on issues of diversity, scale, and context, it considers the ways in which economy, crafts, technology, and ritual were organised; the roles played by mortuary practices and households in the structure and development of ancient societies; and the importance of agency, identity, ethnicity, gender, community and cultural interaction for the rise of socio-economic complexity. The contributors to this volume are well-known archaeologists in the field of Near Eastern studies; all are currently engaged in fieldwork or research in Cyprus, the Levant, or Turkey.
Landscapes in Transition Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 248
ISBN: 9781842174166
Pub Date: 20 Apr 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Levant Supplementary Series
Description:
This volume presents a collection of papers focusing on archaeological approaches to landscape in the context of the adoption of agriculture in Southwest Asia and Northwest Europe. Case studies are presented from these contrasting regions, one where the transition to farming is indigenous, and the other where the transformation is initiated externally. This allows us to consider to what extent hunter-gatherer and farmer landscapes may be different, or the degree to which apparent differences have been constructed by our expectations and traditions of interpretation.
RRP: £35.00
Graeco-Roman Slave Markets Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9780977409488
Pub Date: 06 Apr 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 8 col pls, 41 b/w illus, 1 map
Description:
This book critically examines the existence and identification of purpose-built slave markets in the Graeco-Roman world from a cross-cultural perspective. It investigates whether certain ancient monuments were designed specifically for use as slave markets and whether they required special equipment and safety precautions, allowing them to be clearly distinguished from other nonspecific commercial buildings and marketplaces of the Graeco-Roman world. First, selected parallels, namely slave markets in Istanbul, Marrakesh, Cairo, Havana, Charleston, and New Orleans, are analyzed in order to: assess the possible range of locations for the sale of slaves in slave-holding cultures better known than their ancient equivalents; answer the question of whether any of these cultures constructed clearly identifiable purpose-built slave markets on a regular basis, that is, whether the slave market was ever a firmly established building type; evaluate what can be gained from such a cross-cultural approach to the study of ancient slave markets.
Ancient Mines and Quarries Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842174012
Pub Date: 04 Apr 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 99 b/w illus, 10 tables
Description:
Fourteen papers explore a range of issues relating to prehistoric extraction sites, including ethnography, geochemical signatures, the application of neutron activation analysis, exploitation of erratics, excavation, survey and conservation. Topics include quernstone extraction, use of hammers, stages of extraction, geographical and social contexts, changing social regimes, the ritualised nature of journeys to quarry sites, study of petrofabrics, and the effects of joint and cleavage on quarrying practice. Two contributions are in French with extended summaries in English.
An Enquiring Mind Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 352
ISBN: 9781842173831
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: American School of Prehistoric Research Monograph
Description:
Alexander Marshack single-handedly revolutionized the field of Paleolithic art research. His astounding photographs of portable art objects caused us to see them with fresh eyes, to ask new questions, and to understand their technology and production far more precisely; and his pioneering use of infrared and ultraviolet light in the caves revealed startling new facts about the paintings. In addition, he carried out important, provocative and challenging work on archaeoastronomy, calendar sticks, female imagery, and other topics.
RRP: £35.00
From Surface Collection to Prehistoric Lifeways Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781842173916
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 8 page colour section, 80 b/w illus, 34 tables
Description:
The communities who lived in the Balkans between 7000 and 4000 Cal. BC have now been the focus of intensive and increasingly inter-disciplinary research for the last forty years. Dwelling between the warm, dry Mediterranean zones of the Aegean and Anatolia and the cooler and snowier Central European heartlands, these communities created distinctive social formations that left enduring marks on today's landscapes.
RRP: £60.00
Political Economies of the Aegean Bronze Age Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781842173923
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 42 b/w illus, 15 tables
Description:
This volume brings together an international group of researchers to address how Mycenaean and Minoan states controlled the economy. The contributions, originally delivered at the 2007 Langford Conference at the Florida State University, examine the political economies of state (and pre-state) entities within the Aegean Bronze Age, including the issues of centralization and multiple scales of production, distribution, and consumption within a polity; importance of extraregional trade; craft specialization; the role of non-elite institutions, and the political economy before the emergence of the palaces. The contributors address these issues from an explicitly comparative perspective, both within and across Minoan and Mycenaean contexts.
Representations and Communications Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781842173978
Pub Date: 31 Mar 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 53 b/w illus
Description:
In this volume, which is the outcome of the four-year long collaboration project SARA (Scandinavian and Atlantic Rock Art) between the archaeology department at University of Gothenburg and the Laboratory of Heritage of Spanish National Research Council, nine papers summarize new excavation and survey results, advanced studies of iconography and intriguing landscape studies. It addresses topics such as human activities in the vicinity and surroundings of rock-art panels, movement and communication, ritual and symbolism, and finally representations and constructions of landscapes. The book is a sophisticated study of the rock art of two major regions of prehistoric Europe, but one with implications for research over a much wider area.
RRP: £25.00
Signals of Belief in Early England Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781842173954
Pub Date: 28 Mar 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 35 b/w illus
Description:
This volume will throw new light on the intellect of the earliest English - the way they thought, the way they viewed the world, and the way they viewed worlds other than this. Previous understanding of the topic, well rooted in the ideas of its time, regarded the English as adherents of two consecutive religions: Paganism governed the settlers of the 4th-6th century, but was superseded in the 7th-10th century by Christianity. Of the two, Christianity, a religion of the book, documented itself thoroughly, while in failing to do so Paganism laid itself open to centuries of abuse, conjecture or mindless admiration.
Haltonchesters Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 128
ISBN: 9781842173602
Pub Date: 25 Mar 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This report presents the results of the excavations directed, in 1960 and 1961, by Mr J. P. Gillam within the fort at Haltonchesters.
TRAC 2009 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 152
ISBN: 9781842179727
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: TRAC
Description:
This volume was derived from the nineteenth annual Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, which took place at the University of Michigan (3-5 April 2009) and the University of Southampton (17-18 April 2009).
RRP: £36.00