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.

Landscapes of Ritual Performance in Eastern North America Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781789259292
Pub Date: 15 Jan 2023
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 55 B/W images
Description:
In the long history of documenting the material culture of the archaeological record, meaning and actions of makers and users of these items is often overlooked. The authors in this book focus on rituals exploring the natural and made landscape stages, the ritual directors, including their progression from shaman to priesthood, and meaning of the rites. They also provide comments on the end or failure of rites and cults from Paleoindian into post-DeSoto years.
Settlement in the Irish Neolithic Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781789258820
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/w
Description:
The Irish Neolithic has been dominated by the study of megalithic tombs, but the defining element of Irish settlement evidence is the rectangular timber Early Neolithic house, the numbers of which have more than quadrupled in the last ten years. The substantial Early Neolithic timber house was a short-lived architectural phenomenon of as little as 90 years, perhaps like short-lived Early Neolithic long barrows and causewayed enclosures. This book explores the wealth of evidence for settlement and houses throughout the Irish Neolithic, in relation to Britain and continental Europe.
The Excavations at Ismant al-Kharab I Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9781789259049
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/W and colour
Description:
Excavations by the Dakhleh Oasis Project at Ismant al-Kharab, ancient Kellis in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, revealed the presence of an extensive necropolis dating to the Roman Period, with hundreds of rock-cut tombs containing multiple burials. Termed the Kellis 1 Cemetery, it yielded a range of artefacts and many of the individuals were provided with elaborately decorated cartonnage coverings. This is the largest collection of such material yet discovered in Dakhleh.
Breaking Images Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9781789259148
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Ancient Societies (MAtAS)
Illustrations: B/W
Description:
Archaeological remains are ‘fragmented by definition’: apart from exceptional cases, the study of the human past takes into account mainly traces, ruins, discards, and debris of past civilisations. It is rare that things have been preserved as they were originally made and conceived in the past. However, not all the ancient fragmentary objects were the ‘leftovers’ from the past.
Cyprus in the Long Late Antiquity Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781789258745
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/W and colour
Description:
Cyprus was a thriving and densely populated late antique province. Contrary to what used to be thought, the Arab raids of the mid-seventh century did not abruptly bring the island’s prosperity to an end. Recent research instead highlights long-lasting continuity in both urban and rural contexts.
Ancient DNA and the European Neolithic Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781789259100
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Illustrations: B/W
Description:
The current paradigm-changing ancient DNA revolution is offering unparalleled insights into central problems within archaeology relating to the movement of populations and individuals, patterns of descent, relationships and aspects of identity – at many scales and of many different kinds. The impact of recent ancient DNA results can be seen particularly clearly in studies of the European Neolithic, the subject of contributions presented in this volume. We now have new evidence for the movement and mixture of people at the start of the Neolithic, as farming spread from the east, and at its end, when the first metals as well as novel styles of pottery and burial practices arrived in the Chalcolithic.
An Introduction to Peatland Archaeology and Palaeoenvironments Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781789257557
Pub Date: 15 Nov 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/w and colour
Description:
Peatlands are regarded as having exceptional archaeological value, due to the fact the waterlogged conditions of these wetlands can preserve organic remains that are almost entirely lost from the majority of dryland contexts. This is certainly true, although the remarkable preservation of sites and artefacts is just one aspect of their archaeological importance. This book provides an accessible introduction to the ecology and formation processes of peatlands, and to the different archaeological and palaeoenvironmental techniques that have been developed and adapted for the study of these environments.
Sacred Nature Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 136
ISBN: 9781789259179
Pub Date: 15 Nov 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Material Religion in Antiquity
Illustrations: B/W
Description:
Sacred Nature: Animism and Materiality in Ancient Religions is the second volume of the series Material Religion in Antiquity (MaReA). The book collects the proceedings of the international online workshop carrying the same title organized by CAMNES, SoRS on 20–21 May 2021. Sacred Nature brings together the perspectives of scholars from different disciplines (archaeology, anthropology, iconography, philology, history of religions) about the notions of nature, sacredness, animism and materiality in ancient religions of the Old and the New World.
The Dean and Canons' Houses of St George's Chapel, Windsor Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 176
ISBN: 9781789258653
Pub Date: 15 Nov 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: Colour
Description:
The College of St George at Windsor Castle was founded by Edward III in 1348 to support the newly created Order of the Garter, and to this day fulfils the same primary purpose. The domestic buildings provided for the Warden, Canons and Priest-Vicars – now the Deanery and Canons Cloister – are an astonishing survival: despite enlargement and alteration over the centuries, a significant amount of the mid-fourteenth-century fabric survives, though often hidden from view. A recent programme of refurbishment and conservation revealed much hitherto unknown evidence for the way the buildings were constructed, their fittings and decoration and their subsequent evolution.
The Kyrenia Ship Final Excavation Report, Volume I Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 424
ISBN: 9781785707520
Pub Date: 15 Oct 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: The Kyrenia Ship Final Excavation Report
Illustrations: b/w and colour + additional folder of plans
Description:
The Kyrenia Ship, a Greek merchantman built around 315 BC, which sank off the north coast of Cyprus was excavated between 1968 and 1972 under the direction of Michael L. Katzev of the University of Pennsylvania and Oberlin College. The importance of this ship lies in the exceptionally well-preserved hull that provided new insights into ancient shipbuilding, as well as the cargo it carried.
Scientific Dating in Archaeology Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781789255621
Pub Date: 15 Oct 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/W
Description:
A variety of techniques have been developed to provide scientific chronologies of archaeological sites and material culture. These chronologies underpin the narratives that are generated for prehistoric and other periods. The application of Bayesian statistical analysis to scientific chronologies has been hailed as ‘a revolution in understanding’, and has brought renewed emphasis onto how we generate scientific chronological data, how these data are applied into wider narratives, and the epistemological importance of these data.
Rome and the North-Western Mediterranean Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781789257175
Pub Date: 15 Oct 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/w
Description:
To date, Rome’s intervention to the West from the mid-2nd century BC has not really been looked at with any sense of overview. Instead, there has been an unconnected series of micro-regional studies looking at particular areas, from the River Ebro in Spain round to Italy on the land front, and from the Balearic Islands to Corsica, Sardinia and even Sicily as regards the seaborne aspect. In contrast, this volume pushes the historical and archaeological debates about Rome’s expansion beyond these traditional geographical boundaries and the discipline-based previous research.
From House Societies to States Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 312
ISBN: 9781789258622
Pub Date: 15 Oct 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Ancient Societies (MAtAS)
Illustrations: B/w
Description:
The organisation and characteristics of early and ancient states have become the focus of a renewed interest from archaeologists, ancient historians and anthropologists in recent years. On the one hand, neo-evolutionary schemas of political transformation find it difficult to define some of their most basic concepts, such as ‘chiefdom’, ‘complex chiefdom’ and ‘state’, not to mention the transition between them. On the other hand, teleological interpretations based on linear dynamics, from less to increasingly more complex political structures, in successive steps, impose biased and too rigid views on the available evidence.
Defining Spaces in Iron Age Northumberland Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781789258561
Pub Date: 15 Oct 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: Colour
Description:
The Iron Age settlements excavated by Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd at Morley Hill and Lower Callerton lie within the rich later prehistoric landscape of the Northumberland coastal plain. This monograph presents the results of the excavation, specialist analyses and provides a key dataset upon which to discuss regionally and nationally important later prehistoric research themes. The excavations at Morley Hill and Lower Callerton offer two large-scale new datasets to compare within the corpus of enclosed Iron Age settlement sites across the region, allowing for an increased understanding of settlement patterns, architectural forms and farming practices.
The First Stones Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781789257397
Pub Date: 10 Oct 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: Colour and b/w
Description:
The First Stones brings together the results of recent research on the Neolithic long cairns lying in the shadow of the Black Mountains in south-east Wales, focusing upon Penywyrlod and Gwernvale, the two best known tombs within the group, previously excavated in the 1970s. Important results lie in both new site detail and reassessment of the wider context. Small-scale excavation, geophysical survey and geological assessment at Penywyrlod – the largest of the Welsh long cairns – gave further information about the distinctive external and internal architecture of the monument.
Human Transformations of the Earth Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9781789259209
Pub Date: 15 Sep 2022
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: B/W and colour
Description:
This book charts and explains how human activities have shaped and altered the development of soils in many parts of the world, taking advantage of five decades of soil analytical work in many archaeological landscapes from around the globe. The core of this volume describes and illustrates major transformations of soils and the processes involved in these that have occurred during the Holocene and how these relate to human activities as much as natural causes and trajectories of development, right up to the present day. This is done in two ways: first by examining a number of major processes and impacts on the landscape such as Holocene warming and the development of woodland, clearance and agricultural activities, and second by examining the trajectories of these changes in soil systems in different palaeo-environmental situations in several diverse parts of the world.