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.

The Dark Side of Childhood in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 104
ISBN: 9781842174173
Pub Date: 14 Mar 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This volume examines conceptions, ideas and habits connected with children in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, focusing on the "dark sides of childhood" in the pre-modern world. The authors investigate the long-term attitudes of people, as well as ruptures in habits and customs. The book is divided into three parts.
Memory and Mourning Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 144
ISBN: 9781842179901
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 13 b/w figs
Description:
This book explores the themes of memory and mourning from the Roman deathbed to the Roman cemetery, drawing subject matter from the literature, art, and archaeology of ancient Rome. It brings together scholarship on varied aspects of Roman death, investigating connections between ancient poetry, history and oratory and placing these alongside archaeological and textual evidence for Roman funerary and commemorative rituals. A series of case studies centred on individual authors and/or specific aspects of ritual behaviour, traces the story of Roman death: how the inhabitants of the Roman world confronted their mortality, disposed of the dead, remembered the dead and praised the dead, thereby enhancing our understanding of Roman society.
Roman Colonies in the First Century of Their Foundation Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 128
ISBN: 9781842179741
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
Research on the nature of cultural change in the Roman Empire has traditionally been divided between the Western and Eastern provinces. Papers in this volume aim to reunite the provinces by approaching the question of cultural change across the Empire through a range of material culture and historical sources focusing on the first 100 years of the foundation of a colony.
State Formation in Italy and Greece Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781842179673
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
State Formation in Italy and Greece offers an up-to-date and comprehensive sampler of the current discourse concerning state formation in the central Mediterranean. While comparative approaches to the emergence of political complexity have been applied since the 1950s to Mesopotamia, Mesoamerica, Peru, Egypt and many other contexts, Classical Archaeology as a whole has not played a particularly active role in this debate. Here, for the first time, state formation processes occurring in the Bronze Age Aegean as well as in Iron Age Greece and Italy are explicitly juxtaposed, revealing a complex interplay between similar dynamics and differing local factors.
The Rhyton from Danilo Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781842179772
Pub Date: 28 Feb 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The so called rhyton from Danilo, an archaeological site near the coastal town of Sibenik in Dalmatia, Croatia, is a four-legged Neolithic vessel made of fired clay that according to the consensus of archaeological opinion was most likely a cult vessel used in rituals of unknown origin and content. "Danilo Culture" is the eponymous name bestowed on a culture flourishing in the period from about 5500-4500 BC at Danilo and at some neighbouring sites. This culture had great influence along the eastern Adriatic coast and its hinterland and produced a significant number of these vessels.
RRP: £50.00
The Archaeology of the West Midlands Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781842174272
Pub Date: 26 Feb 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: col illus throughout
Description:
The West Midlands is a region of geographical, topographical and geological contrasts, forming disparate landscapes that are reflected in the nature and diversity of its rich archaeology. This ranges from evidence of its prehistory to the important industrial heritage of its major conurbations. This book represents an attempt by the region's archaeologists to draw these varying archaeological landscapes together to produce a research framework and agenda for their future management.
Ships and Guns Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 168
ISBN: 9781842179697
Pub Date: 22 Feb 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
Ships and Guns brings together experts from the field of historic artillery and underwater archaeologists to present a series of papers which focus on the development of naval ordnance in Europe and, especially, Venice, in the 15th17th centuries, as exemplified by the maritime archaeological resource. Subjects include Venetian ordnance in shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and Atlantic, the race to develop big calibres in the first war of Morea, Genoese ordnance aboard galleys in the 16th century, the strategic logistics of guns at sea during the Spanish armada of 1588 and ships and guns of the Tudor navy. Often specialists in ordnance study artefacts recovered from wrecks without a complete knowledge of the archaeological context from which they have been recovered.
Calendars and Years II Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
ISBN: 9781842179871
Pub Date: 15 Feb 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
Understanding the calendars used by ancient and medieval cultures is essential to the writing of history. Equally important, however, is understanding the basis upon which our current knowledge of these calendars rests. This second volume of Calendars and Years explores the calendars of ancient and medieval China, India, the ancient Jewish world, the medieval Islamic world, and the Maya.
Great Excavations Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781842174098
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 146 b/w and col illus
Description:
Great excavations inspire and capture the imagination of both the public and archaeologists alike; sites like Danebury, Sutton Hoo, Maiden Castle, Mucking and York conjure images of great discoveries and leaps in knowledge. But what was it like to participate in these excavations? What is the story of these projects, and what made them great?
Current Research in Egyptology 2009 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 190
ISBN: 9781842174128
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Current Research in Egyptology
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
The tenth annual Current Research in Egyptology conference was held at the University of Liverpool in January 2009 and welcomed Egyptology graduates from all over the world. This volume is a compilation of some of the papers that were given at the conference, that show the diverse nature of current research in Egyptology.
Epigraphic Approaches to Indus Writing Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 272
ISBN: 9781842179949
Pub Date: 15 Jan 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: American School of Prehistoric Research Monograph
Illustrations: figs, tbls
Description:
Epigraphic Approaches to Indus Writing is a comprehensive look at one of the last undeciphered Old World scripts. It has defied decipherment for 90 years because of the terse nature of the texts and the lack of a comprehensive corpus and detailed sign list. This book presents the analysis of a comprehensive, computer-based corpus using the most detailed sign list yet compiled for the Indus script.
RRP: £35.00
The Bayeux Tapestry Cover The Bayeux Tapestry Cover
Format: 
Pages: 196
ISBN: 9781842179765
Pub Date: 15 Jan 2011
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Pages: 196
ISBN: 9781785707971
Pub Date: 31 May 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
The Bayeux Tapestry, perhaps the most famous, yet enigmatic, of medieval artworks, was the subject of an international conference at the British Museum in July 2008. This volume publishes 19 of 26 papers delivered at that conference. The physical nature of the tapestry is examined, including an outline of the artefact's current display and the latest conservation and research work done on it, as well as a review of the many repairs and alterations that have been made to the Tapestry over its long history.
RRP: £45.00
Anthropological Approaches to Zooarchaeology Cover Anthropological Approaches to Zooarchaeology Cover
Format: 
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781842173909
Pub Date: 15 Dec 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 152 b/w illus, 53 tables
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781789250589
Pub Date: 30 Apr 2018
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: 152 b/w illus, 53 tables
Description:
Animals in complex human societies are often both meal and symbol, related to everyday practice and ritual. People in such societies may be characterized as having unequal access to such resources, or else the meaning of animals may differ for component groups. Here, in this book, 28 peer-reviewed papers that span 4 continents and the Caribbean islands explore in different ways how animals were incorporated into the diets and religions of many unique societies.
Landscapes Through the Lens Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781842179819
Pub Date: 11 Nov 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and col illus
Description:
This volume presents the rich, but under-utilised and in parts inaccessible, archival historic aerial imagery, traditional photographs and those captured from satellites, for the exploration and management of cultural heritage. An unparalleled resource, for archaeologists and all with an interest in landscapes, images spanning the second half of the 20th century provide an unrivalled means of documenting and understanding change and informing the study of the past. Case studies, written by leading experts in their fields, illustrate the applications of this imagery across a wide range of heritage issues, from prehistoric cultivation and settlement patterns, to the impact of recent landscape change.
Samothracian Connections Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 224
ISBN: 9781842179703
Pub Date: 10 Oct 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
This volume of sixteen papers is dedicated to James R. McCredie in celebration of his outstanding contribution to the excavation and study of the sanctuary of the Great Gods on the Greek island of Samothrace. The papers focus mainly on the art and archaeology of Samothrace, while two contributions discuss Alexandria in Egypt and Florina in Macedonia, two areas that were closely connected with Samothrace in antiquity.
Material Mnemonics Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781842179666
Pub Date: 12 Sep 2010
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus
Description:
How did ancient Europeans materialise memory? Material Mnemonics: Everyday Practices in Prehistoric Europe provides a fresh approach to the archaeological study of memory. Drawing on case studies from the British Isles, Scandinavia, central Europe, Greece, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula that date from the Neolithic through the Iron Age, the book's authors explore the implications of our understanding of the past when memory and mnemonic practices are placed in the center of cultural analyses.