Oxbow Book News 103
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OXBOW BOOK NEWS 103 New and forthcoming titles for Spring 2019 Archaeology The Ancient World Greece and Rome The Middle Ages A warm welcome to the Spring edition of the Oxbow Book News, packed as ever with all the latest titles across our range of archaeological, Classical and medieval specialisms. From the first in the series of final reports from the Stonehenge Riverside Project to twentieth century combat archaeology, we hope you will find plenty here to tempt you. As you may be able to tell from the front and back covers of this Book News, we have been getting excited about the imminent publication of the long-awaited The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia by Neil Price. In a tour-de-force of historical writing Neil Price delves into the cognitive archaeology of the Viking Age, reconstructing their beliefs and society in a strikingly new way which will challenge many preconceptions. In particular, he explores the fundamental importance of magic to the Viking mental landscape, and the centrality of gender and sexual identity to the practice and functioning of sorcery. The Viking Way will be out in April and forms the centrepiece of our Spring publishing program. Looking forward to the Autumn, The Arras Culture of Eastern Yorkshire edited by Peter Halkon presents a major new survey of Yorkshire’s remarkable Iron Age archaeology within its wider context. A wealth of new data includes the recent discovery of two chariot burials at Pocklington, which featured on BBC 4’s Digging for Britain series. The Cosmatesque Mosaics of Westminster Abbey by Warwick Rodwell and David S. Neal publishes the first detailed record and analysis of an internationally important group of monuments, decorated with the only examples of cosmatesque mosaic outside Italy. Stunning full colour illustration by David Neal of every piece of mosaic completes the work. The Book News is rounded off with its bargain section, including a new list from Boydell and Brewer and a generous selection of our own titles, all reduced in price for the first time. Numbers are limited, so get them while you can! Cover Image: The Karlevi runestone (photo by Jochka, Creative Commons) From: The Viking Way by Neil Price (Oxbow Books 2019) This issue of Oxbow Book News has been compiled by Mike Schurer © Oxbow Books 2019 Published by Oxbow Books, The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JE Tel (order enquiries): +44 (0)1226 734350 | Tel (general enquiries): +44 (0)1865 241249 E-mail: [email protected] | www.oxbowbooks.com /oxbowbooks @oxbowbooks General Interest Living with the Gods Forthcoming from Oxbow Books 40,000 Years of Peoples, Objects and Beliefs By Neil MacGregor A Taste for Green No society on Earth lacks A Global Perspective on Ancient Jade, beliefs about where it has Turquoise and Variscite Exchange come from, its place in the Edited by Carlos Rodríguez-Rellán, Ben Nelson and world, and the connection Ramón Fábregas Valcarce of individuals to the eternal. A Taste for Green addresses Neil MacGregor’s new latest research into the book traces how different acquisition of jade, turquoise societies have understood or variscite, all of which and articulated their place share a characteristic in the cosmic scheme. greenish colour and an He brilliantly turns his engaging appearance once kaleidoscope of objects, they are polished in the monuments and ideas shape of axes or assorted to examining mankind’s beliefs – not from the adornments. Papers perspective of institutional religions, but by focusing explore how, in addition on the shared narratives that have shaped our to constituting economic societies, and our relationships with each other. transactions, the transfer of these materials 624pp, col illus (Penguin 2018) 9780241308295 Hb were also statements of social liaisons, personal £30.00 capacities, and relation to places or to unseen forces. The volume centres on two study areas, Western The Great Leveler Europe and México/Southwest US, which are far Violence and the History of Inequality from apart not just in geographical terms but also with the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century regard to their chronology and socioeconomic By Walter Scheidel features. By contrasting the archaeological evidence Tracing the global history of inequality from the from diverse areas we may gain insights into the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that it role that production/movement of never dies peacefully. He charts the crucial role these green stones played in their of violent shocks – mass-mobilization warfare, respective political and ritual Only economies. transformative revolutions, state collapse, and £36.00 until 208pp b/w and col illus catastrophic plagues – in reducing inequality over publication the full sweep of human history around the world, (Oxbow Books 2019) and in doing so provides important new insights 9781789252743 Hb £45.00 about why inequality is so persistent. 528pp, b/w illus (Princeton UP 2018) 9780691183251 Pb £14.99 Bestiary The Witch Animals in Art from the Ice Age to Our Age A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to By Christopher Masters the Present Bestiary is a wonderfully By Ronald Hutton visual, thematic exploration of animals – real, surreal In this landmark book, Ronald Hutton traces and imaginary – as depicted witchcraft from the ancient world to the early- on beautiful ritual objects modern stake. He combines Anglo-American and works of art. Famous and continental scholarly approaches to examine artworks mix with little- attitudes on witchcraft and the treatment of seen artefacts from every suspected witches across the world, including in age and around the globe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Australia, and drawing out contrasts and North and South America. His fresh anthropological connections between many and ethnographical approach focuses on cultural different civilizations. inheritance and change while considering shamanism, folk religion, the range of witch trials, 256pp col illus (Thames and Hudson 2018) and how the fear of witchcraft might be eradicated. 9780500480236 Hb £16.95 376pp, 16 b/w illus. (Yale UP 2017, Pb 2018) 9780300229042 Hb £25.00, 9780300238679 Pb £11.99 1 Method and Theory The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences NEW FROM OXBOW BOOKS By Sandra L. Lopez Varela Reinventing Sustainability Comprised of over 480 entries contributed by How Archaeology Can Save the Planet scholars from all over the world and managed by 11 section editors, this comprehensive encyclopedia By Erika Guttmann-Bond provides a broad overview of the scientific This book is about principles and techniques that allow for a more sustainable agriculture and rigorous interpretation of archaeological data. architecture in the past, It outlines how to study the characteristics and and the engineering works properties of materials, as well as instrumental that supported them, but techniques and relative methods currently applied it also looks to the future. in field and laboratory work. Ancient technologies are 1992pp (Wiley-Blackwell 2018) 9780470674611 Hb what engineers define £527.00 as ‘intermediate’, which means that they are often Three Stones Make a Wall simple, low in cost and The Story of Archaeology they depend on local materials. Significantly, they don’t require fossil By Eric H. Cline fuels. There is a lot that we in the West can learn This book traces the history of archaeology from from the past and from developing countries an amateur pursuit to the cutting-edge science it where people still practice traditional agriculture, is today by taking the reader on a tour of major and there is now broad agreement among many archaeological sites and discoveries. Along the way, governments, non-government organisations, it addresses the questions archaeologists are asked engineers and agronomists, as well as the United most often: How do you know where to dig? How are Nations, that intermediate technologies are often excavations actually done? How do you know how the most appropriate way forward in developing old something is? Who gets to keep what is found? countries. 480pp, b/w illus (Princeton UP 2017, Pb 2018) 160p (Oxbow Books 2019) 9781785709920 9780691166407 Hb £27.00, 9780691183237 Pb £14.99 Pb £25.00 CAA2016: Oceans of Data Archaeology in the PPG16 Era Proceedings of the 44th Conference on Investigations in England 1990–2010 Computer Applications and Quantitative By Timothy Darvill, Kerry Barrass, Vanessa Methods in Archaeology Constant, Ehren Milner & Bronwen Russell Edited by Mieko Matsumoto & Espen Uleberg Planning Policy Guidance These papers address one of the greatest present Note 16: Archaeology and challenges in this field: the use and re-use of Plannin, published in 1990, large datasets that result both saw the formal integration from digitalisation and digital of archaeological documentation of archaeological Only considerations with the excavations and surveys. £81.00 until UK town and country 564pp, b/w and col illus planning system and set 31st May (Archaeopress 2018) 9781784917302 out processes for informed Pb £95.00 decision-making and the implementation of post- Understanding Architectural determination mitigation Drawings and Historical Visual Sources strategies. This comprehensive review of the Edited by Susie Barson project presents a wealth of data. A series of case This book explains the provenance, purpose and studies examines the illustrate different types terminology of a range of visual sources from the of development project, revealing many ways 16th to the 20th centuries, and how they can help in which projects develop, how archaeology is – or sometimes hinder – an understanding of the integrated with planning and execution, and original form and subsequent changes to a building, the range of outputs documenting the process. site or landscape. In addition, they list the most 320p, b/w and colour (Oxbow Books 2018) widely used archives and online and published 9781789251081 Hb £25.00 databases of historic visual sources. 96pp b/w and col illus (Historic England 2019) 9781848023703 Pb £20.00 2 Digital Imaging of Artefacts Developments in Methods and Aims NEW FROM OXBOW BOOKS Edited by Kate Kelley & Rachel K.