Archaeology & Ancient History
In September 2022 Oxbow's bookshop and distribution buisness merged with Pen & Sword Books, a family run independent publisher of history books. The book distribution aspect of our business will continue to bring you some of the best books in the field of archaeology and related disciplines as Casemate UK. The Oxbow Books publishing imprint remains as a separate entity, still sold and distributed exclusively by us.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 170
ISBN: 9781842173671
Pub Date: 15 Jul 2009
Series: ASTENE Publications
Description:
In the absence of horses, saddle the dogs. This Arab proverb, suggesting the uncompromising determination of nomads to keep moving, whatever the obstacles, epitomizes also the travelling ethos of many early visitors to the 'exotic East'. The journeys examined here are linked by the light they shed on the experience of travel in Egypt, Greece and the Ottoman Balkans, and the Near East from the 17th to the early 20th century not so much what was seen as how one got there and how one got around once arrived; the vicissitudes and travails, both expected and strange that characterised the passage.
The purpose of the trips examined range from religious pilgrimages to diplomatic, commercial and military journeys, to middle-class package tours. Each of them is of interest for what it reveals about the realities of travel in Egypt, the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East at different times: the means by which travel was carried out, the dangers and discomforts encountered and the preparations made. The Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE) is a registered educational charity promoting the study of the history of travel and travellers in the eastern Mediterranean, from Greece and the Ottoman Balkans eastward to Turkey and the Levant, Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula and the Mesopotamian region.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 376
ISBN: 9788785180568
Pub Date: 21 Jun 2009
Series: Maritime Culture of the North
Description:
Wulfstan’s account covers a voyage from the root of Jutland to the Vistula Delta – connecting the trading centres of Hedeby and Truso – and provides a rare and vivid view of the south-eastern Baltic Sea region in the early Viking Age, including aspects of inland navigation and local culture. In this book, a panel of scholars presents the original source and debate its geographical, cultural, nautical and economic context in the light of recent investigations.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781905119295
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2009
Illustrations: 148 col & b/w illus
Description:
The dramatic and stunning Welsh coastal landscapes of the island of Anglesey are documented in this beautiful pictorial record of the history of Anglesey's coast, from prehistoric times to the present day. The fact that Anglesey is an island has been crucial to its history, its coast the scene of prehistoric fishing and oyster catching, Neolithic tombs and Bronze Age round barrows, Roman influenced villas, Irish incursions, a Norman motte and the last of the great Edwardian castles to be built at Beaumaris, the development of Holyhead into its main port in the nineteenth century, and the growth of sustainable energy in the form of wind turbines in the twentieth. The photography taken by Mick Sharp and Jean Williamson is supplemented by text by Frances Lynch who introduces each chapter and provides detailed captions describing and providing background information to the photographs.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 414
ISBN: 9781932714708
Pub Date: 15 Jun 2009
Illustrations: b/w maps and photos throughout
Description:
In 9 A.D., the 17th, 18th, & 19th Roman legions and their auxiliary troops under the command of Publius Quinctilius Varus vanished in the boggy wilds of Germania.
They died by the hundreds over several days in a carefully planned ambush led by Arminius—a Roman-trained German warrior adopted and subsequently knighted by the Romans, but determined to stop Rome’s advance east beyond the Rhine River. By the time it was over, some 25,000 men, women, and children were dead and the course of European history had been forever altered. “Quinctilius Varus, give me back my legions!” Emperor Augustus agonized aloud when he learned of the devastating loss. As the decades slipped past, the location of the Varus defeat, one of the Western world’s most important battlefields, was lost to history. It remained so for two millennia.Convinced the running battle took place north of Osnabruck, Germany, Clunn set out to prove his point. His discovery of large numbers of Roman coins in the late 1980s, followed by a flood of thousands of other artifacts (including weapons and human remains), ended the mystery once and for all. Archaeologists and historians across the world agreed. Today, a multi-million dollar state-of-the-art museum houses and interprets these priceless historical treasures on the very site Varus’s legions were lost.A masterful retelling of the search to discover the Varus battlefield, Clunn alternates between his incredible modern quest, and the ancient tale of the Roman occupation of Germany (based upon actual finds from the battlefield) that ultimately ended so tragically in the peat bogs of Kalkriese.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781842173497
Pub Date: 09 Jun 2009
Series: University of Cambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology Monographs
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
The publication of the papers presented in this volume marks an important step in the study of ancient cities. Despite having long been a focus of archaeological investigation and analysis, until relatively recently they have tended to be described rather than analysed. These eleven papers concentrate on analysing ancient urban centres from within, exploring some of the ways in which people lived in, perceived and modified their built environments.
The papers span several time periods, from the Bronze Age to the Hellenistic era as well as geographic locations from Italy to Beirut. The title of this volume thus incorporates two meanings of Greek: the territory of the modern nation-state and areas of the ancient world with cultural influences from the Aegean. The diversity of ancient urban forms is therefore fully recognised and celebrated.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781905119301
Pub Date: 31 May 2009
Description:
The dramatic and stunning Welsh coastal landscapes of the island of Anglesey are documented in this beautiful pictorial record of the history of Anglesey's coast, from prehistoric times to the present day. The fact that Anglesey is an island has been crucial to its history, its coast the scene of prehistoric fishing and oyster catching, Neolithic tombs and Bronze Age round barrows, Roman influenced villas, Irish incursions, a Norman motte and the last of the great Edwardian castles to be built at Beaumaris, the development of Holyhead into its main port in the nineteenth century, and the growth of sustainable energy in the form of wind turbines in the twentieth. The photography taken by Mick Sharp and Jean Williamson is supplemented by text by Frances Lynch who introduces each chapter and provides detailed captions describing and providing background information to the photographs.
This is the Welsh language edition of the book.
Format: Hardback
Pages: 293
ISBN: 9781898249238
Pub Date: 05 May 2009
Series: British Institute at Ankara Monograph
Description:
Project Paphlagonia was a multi-period, large-scale programme of regional survey in northcentral Turkey, today the provinces of Çankiri and parts of Karabuek, previously a little explored region. In total, an area of almost 8,500km2 was surveyed between 1997 and 2001, using both extensive and intensive survey techniques. More than 330 sites of archaeological and historical significance were located and recorded.
The sites range in date from early prehistoric to Ottoman, and include Palaeolithic camp-sites, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age settlements and cemeteries, fortified defensive sites of the Hittite and other periods, Phrygian villages and burial tumuli, and a wealth of small towns, villages, farmsteads and hill-top refuges of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and early Turkish periods. This volume, to be used in conjunction with the Project Paphlagonia website presents synthetic treatments of all these periods as well as studies of the geology, geomorphology and climatology of the region. Studies of long-term settlement trends and patterns complete this publication of an important and productive programme of archaeological and historical survey.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 422
ISBN: 9788779344198
Pub Date: 30 Apr 2009
Series: Black Sea Studies
Illustrations: b/w photos & illus
Description:
Meetings of cultures arouse strong feelings. In this volume, nineteen scholars from Denmark, France, Georgia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Russia, and Ukraine present a profound discussion covering various topics from the physical arena of the colonial encounters, to the layout of land and protection of cities, to the dynamics of the cultural exchange, to the perception of how it was to be Greek in the Pontic realm, and finally, to be reciprocal strategies exerted by the Greeks and Scythians in the Olbia as described in Herodotos's Skythian Tale. Through the many-sided contributions it is revealed how the self and the other are two sides of the same coin - yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Pages: 96
ISBN: 9782840481508
Pub Date: 21 Apr 2009
Illustrations: illustrated in full colour throughout
Pages: 132
ISBN: 9782352500827
Pub Date: 19 Jul 2009
Illustrations: full colour throughout
Description:
Hastings is perhaps the most famous battle ever fought on English soil and resulted in William, Duke of Normandy, becoming King of England. Popularly known as William the Conqueror, his victory over King Harold and his forces was a pivotal turning point in English history, the influences of which are still to be seen today. The weaponry, equipment, dress, logistics and living conditions of the soldiers from both sides are covered in great detail as is the terrain and the tactics of the two armies, using illustrations from the Bayeux Tapestry and photographs of a recent re-enactment of the battle which took place on the original battlefield.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781842173657
Pub Date: 06 Apr 2009
Description:
Human bones form the most direct link to understanding how people lived in the past, who they were and where they came from. The interpretative value of human skeletal remains (within their burial context) in terms of past social identity and organisation is awesome, but was, for many years, underexploited by archaeologists. The nineteen papers in this edited volume are an attempt to redress this by marrying the cultural aspects of burial with the anthropology of the deceased.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 196
ISBN: 9780905205519
Pub Date: 15 Mar 2009
Imprint: Francis Cairns Publications
Series: ARCA, Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs
Description:
This volume constitutes a work of fundamental importance for historians of the period. Part One analyzes the background, opinions, and historiography of each of the four writers, with particular emphasis on recovering from the fragments the original structure of their works. Part Two presents an annotated conspectus, based on close study of all relevant writings, ancient and modern.
Reprint of the 1981 edition.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 232
ISBN: 9781905223022
Pub Date: 15 Jan 2009
Illustrations: b/w & col illus
Description:
This volume provides a synthetic review of the background and archaeology that has emerged through archaeological interventions associated with the quarrying of sand, gravel, and rock for aggregates. The book covers all periods from the Lower Palaeolithic to Medieval, and is organized on a regional basis. The review, which also contains as yet unpublished data, shows how the variety and preservation of archaeology can greatly expand our understanding of the relationships of humans to their changing environments.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781902771762
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2008
Illustrations: b/w and col illus
Description:
A pioneering regional study of one of the UK's key heavy industries in the 20th century - aggregates. Combining archaeological fieldwork with historical research and oral testimony, Tim Cooper traces the development of the industry through the 20th century, the machinery and processes used in quarrying, issues of supply and storeage, its place in the wider industry, and perhaps most prominently its significant impact on the Trent Valley landscape.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
ISBN: 9789088900099
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2008
Description:
Complex regional pain syndrome type I (CRPS-I), formerly known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, can occur after a trauma to an arm or leg. CRPS is frequently seen after wrist fractures. The diagnosis of CRPS is based on clinical signs and symptoms.
According to Veldman et al. it is characterized by unexplained diffuse pain, differences in skin colour and temperature relative to the other limb, diffuse oedema, and limited active range of motion. These signs and symptoms occur or increase after use and are present in an area larger than the area of primary trauma. CRPS is one of the most important causes of invalidation after an injury to an extremity and the therapy is difficult, time consuming and costly. When it occurs it has a devastating impact on the patient in personal, social and economic view. The emphasis of treatment should therefore be on prevention. This thesis, by orthopaedic surgeon Paul Zollinger, gives an overview of the evidence-based therapy of CRPS in an outline of the Dutch clinical practice guideline Complex regional pain syndrome type I. A general exposé on the chemical, pharmacodynamic and clinical aspects of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is presented. In two placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials Zollinger et al. show that 500 mg vitamin C daily, reduces the chance for the occurrence of CRPS after wrist fractures. In addition, this application of vitamin C is proposed in hand surgery as well. An alphabetical list of the relevant literature and summaries in English, Dutch and German complete this book on CRPS, which may be of interest for a variety of health care professionals (general practitioners, physiotherapists, trauma and orthopaedic surgeons, etc.).
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9780954482473
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2008
Imprint: Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Description:
Taking its inspiration from Cyril Fox's groundbreaking 1923 study of its namesake, and with its first volume issued to mark the 85th anniversary of his book, this series is dedicated to the archaeology of Cambridge's hinterland. In recent years an enormous amount of fieldwork has occured within the City's environs, to the point that it must now rank as one of the most intensively investigated landscapes in southern England. This volume reports the 2002/03 Hutchinson Site excavations beside Addenbrooke's Hospital.
While primarily concerned with its Iron Age/Roman Conquest-Period dynamics, there was also significant later Bronze Age and Middle Saxon occupation. The site's sequence both informs, and is informed by, the results of an evaluation survey extending over 200ha west to the River Cam, which led to the recovery of some 15 new sites. Thereafter, three other landscape evaluation case-studies are presented, drawn both from the County's southern chalklands and also its western and northern clays. Seeing comparable site-discovery rates, this enormous increase in known site densities has fundamental implications for understandings of early land-use and settlement/population levels, and allows archaeologists to appreciate for the first time what is, in effect, the past fabric of the land . The case is made that such grand-scale surveys should be considered as 'stand-alone' programmes of investigation in their own right.
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781842173411
Pub Date: 11 Dec 2008
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781782975427
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2014
Description:
Archaeology often struggles in envisioning real people behind the world of material objects it studies. Even when dealing with skeletal remains archaeologists routinely reduce them to long lists of figures and attributes. Such a fragmentation of past subjects and their bodies, if analytically necessary, is hardly satisfactory.
While material culture is the main archaeological proxy to real people in the past, the absence of past bodies has been chronic in archaeological writings. At the same time, these past bodies in archaeology are omnipresent. Bodily matters are tangible in the archaeological record in a way most other theoretical centralities never appear to be. Ancient bodies surround us, in representations, in burials, in the remains of food preparation, cooking and consumption, in hands holding tools, in joint efforts of many individual bodies who built architecture and monuments. This collection of papers is a reaction to decades of the body's invisibility. It raises the body as the central topic in the study of past societies, researching its appearance in a wide variety of regional contexts and across vast spans of archaeological time. Contributions in this volume range from the deep Epi-Palaeolithic past of the Near East, through the European Neolithic and Bronze Age, Classical Greece and Late Medieval England, to pre-Columbian Central America, post-contact North America, and the most recent conflicts in the Balkans. In all these case studies, the materiality of the body is centre stage. Possibilities are highlighted for future study: by putting the body at the forefront of these archaeological studies an attempt is made to provoke the imagination and map out new territories.