Sidestone Press

Sidestone Press is an academic publishing house founded by scholars, for scholars. As a publisher they have one clear ambition, that is to make scientific information available to all. They believe scientific information should be available at all times, at all places and to each and every one. This means that the printing and selling of books is but one part of what they believe a good publisher should do.

Apart from printed books that can be found in libraries and bookstores around the world, Sidestone books can also be freely accessed online through different channels such as Google Books, Google Scholar and through their own digital ebook library. By offering access to their books for free, more people than ever have access to our publications. First of all this is beneficial for our authors as it greatly increases the exposure of their work, and in effect, the impact of their research. Second, of course, it enables their readers – scholars and students around the world – to access their publications at any time and at any place, including those parts of the world where access to good quality academic libraries is not guaranteed.

From 2012 onwards Sidestone books have been published under one of three different imprints: Sidestone Press Academics, Sidestone Press Dissertations and Sidestone Press.

European Archaeology: Identities & Migrations Cover European Archaeology: Identities & Migrations Cover
Format: 
Pages: 520
ISBN: 9789088905216
Pub Date: 30 Sep 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 62fc / 36bw
Pages: 520
ISBN: 9789088905209
Pub Date: 04 Dec 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 62fc / 36bw
Description:
As it appears in diverse guises – and notably as a founding narrative – the past is at the core of every functioning human society. The idea that the past can be known through scientific research has long been a fundamental challenge for western societies and for European researchers, from all disciplines concerned. Through more than four decades of outward-looking archaeological practice, the scholar, teacher and intellectual Jean-Paul Demoule has elaborated a truly global approach to European cultures and their transformations, spanning from the social inequality in Neolithic times to Indo European research to contemporary links between heritage and politics.
Style and Meaning Cover Style and Meaning Cover
Format: 
Pages: 300
ISBN: 9789088904479
Pub Date: 15 Sep 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Pacific Presences
Illustrations: 70 fc / 16 bw
Pages: 300
ISBN: 9789088904462
Pub Date: 15 Sep 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Pacific Presences
Illustrations: 70 fc / 16 bw
Description:
Anthropology's engagement with art has a complex and uneven history. While material culture, 'decorative art', and art styles were of major significance for founding figures such as Alfred Haddon and Franz Boas, art became marginal as the discipline turned towards social analysis in the 1920s. This book addresses a major moment of renewal in the anthropology of art in the 1960s and 1970s.
Religion, Cults & Rituals in the Medieval Rural Environment Cover Religion, Cults & Rituals in the Medieval Rural Environment Cover
Format: 
Pages: 425
ISBN: 9789088904875
Pub Date: 11 Sep 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Ruralia
Illustrations: 71fc/91bw
Pages: 425
ISBN: 9789088904868
Pub Date: 11 Sep 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Ruralia
Illustrations: 71fc/91bw
Description:
The study of belief, faith and religious practices can provide a deep insight into historical societies, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish or pagan. They form a constant of human behaviour. Through religion, cult and rituals, multi-layered and complex cultural norms are expressed, demonstrating group affiliation.
Drawing Lithic Artefacts Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 52
ISBN: 9789088905308
Pub Date: 29 Aug 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 18fc/11bw
Description:
Stone Age researchers spend a lot of time studying and documenting lithic artefacts. Since it is impossible to study all these artefacts physically, they often rely on images. Drawings are often the most informative because the lines and symbols in these drawing contain technological information which tells the audience how the artefact depicted was made.
The Interactive Past Cover The Interactive Past Cover
Format: 
Pages: 220
ISBN: 9789088904370
Pub Date: 17 May 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: ca 40 fc
Pages: 220
ISBN: 9789088904363
Pub Date: 17 May 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: ca 40 fc
Description:
Video games, even though they are one of the present’s quintessential media and cultural forms, also have a surprising and many-sided relation with the past. From seminal series like Sid Meier’s Civilization or Assassin’s Creed to innovative indies like Never Alone and Herald, games have integrated heritages and histories as key components of their design, narrative, and play. This has allowed hundreds of millions of people to experience humanity’s diverse heritage through the thrill of interactive and playful discovery, exploration, and (re-)creation.
Treasures in Trusted Hands Cover Treasures in Trusted Hands Cover
Format: 
Pages: 230
ISBN: 9789088904400
Pub Date: 15 May 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: CLUES
Illustrations: 0
Pages: 230
ISBN: 9789088904394
Pub Date: 15 May 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: CLUES
Illustrations: 0
Description:
This pioneering study charts the one-way traffic of cultural and historical objects during five centuries of European colonialism. It presents abundant examples of disappeared colonial objects and systematises these into war booty, confiscations by missionaries and contestable acquisitions by private persons and other categories. Former colonies consider this as a historical injustice that has not been undone.
Sailors, Musicians and Monks Cover Sailors, Musicians and Monks Cover
Format: 
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9789088904165
Pub Date: 14 Apr 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 150+ full colour illus.
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9789088904158
Pub Date: 14 Apr 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 150+ full colour illus.
Description:
This volume describes, illustrates, and analysis the finds from the excavations at Dra Abu el-Naga, an important necropolis on the east bank of the Nile in Luxor (Egypt), which was in use from Middle Kingdom times until the early Christian era. Excavations of the site have been conducted by the German Archaeological Institute (DAI). A wide variety of leather objects or objects with leather parts have been discovered, including footwear, musical objects, loincloths as well as parts of furniture.
Novels of Genocide Cover Novels of Genocide Cover
Format: 
Pages: 190
ISBN: 9789088904325
Pub Date: 12 Apr 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Memory Traps
Pages: 190
ISBN: 9789088904318
Pub Date: 12 Apr 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: Memory Traps
Description:
In the last 20 years or so, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda has inspired a number of creative writers who were eager to represent that genocide itself, its aftermath and, in some cases, the situation that they perceived as paving the way for it decades before it occurred. Unlike other parts of Africa, where the novel already had a deeply rooted tradition, the Rwandan novel is a recent phenomenon that dates back to the late 1990s. In this book, the author focuses on 10 Rwandan-authored novels of genocide, which he considers to be excellent memory texts that reveal a lot about memory processes in post-genocide Rwanda.
Artisans versus nobility? Cover Artisans versus nobility? Cover
Format: 
Pages: 222
ISBN: 9789088903977
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 80bw/20fc
Pages: 222
ISBN: 9789088903960
Pub Date: 20 Mar 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 80bw/20fc
Description:
In prehistoric Europe hierarchic societies arose and developed technological systems and processes in the production of objects related to everyday use, on the one hand, and items of religious and symbolic character emulating prestige and luxury, on the other, while both types of objects may not always be clearly distinguishable. This volume deals with questions of how artisans and other social groups, involved in these productive processes and social practices, reacted to and interacted with the demands connected with elites identities formation, affirmation reconfirmation practices. Innovations and the development of new technologies designed to satisfy the needs of ostentatious behaviour and achieving prestige are key issues of this volume.
After the deluge Cover After the deluge Cover
Format: 
Pages: 210
ISBN: 9789088904073
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 11bw & 55fc
Pages: 210
ISBN: 9789088904066
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 11bw & 55fc
Description:
After World War II huge land consolidation projects measuring thousands of hectares were carried out in West-Frisia. Large scale excavations of Bronze Age settlement sites were carried out resulting in a convincing model for the Bronze Age habitation of West-Frisia. This model envisaged settlement sites situated on creek ridges in an open almost treeless landscape.
Interdisciplinarity between Humanities and Science Cover Interdisciplinarity between Humanities and Science Cover
Format: 
Pages: 184
ISBN: 9789088904042
Pub Date: 27 Feb 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: CLUES
Illustrations: 34fc/13bw
Pages: 184
ISBN: 9789088904035
Pub Date: 27 Feb 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Series: CLUES
Illustrations: 34fc/13bw
Description:
Henk Kars was appointed as first Chair of Archaeometry in The Netherlands in 1994. From 2002 he was full time professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, interim Director of CLUE, and founder and Managing Director of the Institute for Geo- and Bioarchaeology. This festschrift volume incorporates original publications in the field straddling the Sciences and Humanities produced by various former PhD-students, post-docs and colleagues.
Mobility and Pottery Production Cover Mobility and Pottery Production Cover
Format: 
Pages: 270
ISBN: 9789088904615
Pub Date: 15 Feb 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 55fc/55bw
Pages: 270
ISBN: 9789088904608
Pub Date: 20 Dec 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 55fc/55bw
Description:
For many past and present societies, pottery forms an integral part of material culture and everyday practice. This makes it a promising case example to address human-thing-relations on a more general level, as well as social life itself. Humans organise their lives not only by engaging with materials and things but also by oscillating between movement and stasis.
Corded Ware Coastal Communities Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 302
ISBN: 9789088903281
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 50bw/15fc
Description:
The Corded Ware Culture (c. 2900–2300 BC) is found in a large area, from Russia to the Netherlands and from Scandinavia to Switzerland. Supra-regional elements include beakers decorated with cord and/or spatula imprints, battle-axes, and a funerary customs involving crouched inhumations under barrows with gender-specific placement of the body gender-specific funerary gifts.
Water & Heritage Cover Water & Heritage Cover
Format: 
Pages: 434
ISBN: 9789088903861
Pub Date: 15 Jan 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 29bw/133fc
Pages: 434
ISBN: 9789088902789
Pub Date: 23 Apr 2015
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 29bw/133fc
Description:
Water is vital for life, and its availability has been a concern for mankind throughout the ages. Its presence has always been ascertained in a variety of ways and the development of human society everywhere is connected with various forms of water management. Man also needed to manage water to find protection from its dangers and the need for that is increasing.
RRP: £75.00
Egyptian Bioarchaeology Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 248
ISBN: 9789088903854
Pub Date: 15 Jan 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 46bw/45fc
Description:
Although the bioarchaeology (study of biological remains in an archaeological context) of Egypt has been documented in a desultory way for many decades, it is only recently that it has become an inherent part of excavations in Egypt. This volume consists of a series of essays that explore how ancient plant, animal, and human remains should be studied, and how, when they are integrated with texts, images, and artefacts, they can contribute to our understanding of the history, environment, and culture of ancient Egypt in a holistic manner. Topics covered in this volume relating to human remains include analyses of royal, elite and poor cemeteries of different eras, case studies on specific mummies, identification of different diseases in human remains, an overview of the state of palaeopathology in Egypt, how to analyse burials to establish season of death, the use of bodies to elucidate life stories, the potential of visceral remains in identifying individuals as well as diseases that they might have had, and a protocol for studying mummies.
Tying the Threads of Eurasia Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 408
ISBN: 9789088903878
Pub Date: 15 Jan 2017
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: >200fc
Description:
The famous ‘Silk Roads’ have long evoked a romantic picture of travel through colourful civilizations that connected the western and eastern poles of Eurasia, facilitating the exchange of exotic luxury goods, peoples, pathogens and ideas. But how far back can we trace such interaction? Increasing evidence suggests considerable time-depth for Trans-Eurasian exchange, with the expanding urban networks of the Bronze Age at times anticipating later caravan routes.