Prehistory & Ancient History  /  Ancient Near East
Carchemish in Context Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9781785701115
Pub Date: 18 Mar 2016
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: BANEA monograph Series
Illustrations: b/w and colour images
Description:
The city of Carchemish in the valley of the Euphrates river can be regarded as one of the iconic sites in the Middle East, a mound complex known both for its own intrinsic qualities as the seat of later Hittite power and Neo-Hittite kings, but also because its history of excavations included well known historical figures such as Leonard Woolley and T. E. Lawrence.
RRP: £48.00
Fresh Fields and Pastures New Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 170
ISBN: 9789088903489
Pub Date: 06 Jan 2016
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Description:
This volume honors the career and contributions of Andrew M.T. Moore.

The Past in the Present

The Collection of Classical & Near Eastern Antiquities in the National Museum of Denmark
Format: Paperback
Pages: 166
ISBN: 9788789438092
Pub Date: 31 Dec 2015
Illustrations: illus
Description:
The past is inextricably embeded in the present – whether we are aware of it or not. The present was shaped by the thoughts and deeds of those who went before, and our daily life largely plays out on a stage set by our ancestors. The seven contributors to this volume have taken their cue from ancient artefacts of the cultures of the Mediterranean and Near East that are kept in the National Museum of Denmark.
Cypriot Cultural Details Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 234
ISBN: 9781785700668
Pub Date: 31 May 2015
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: black/white illustrations
Description:
There are countless references to Cyprus in Venice: in palaces, primarily that of Queen Caterina Corner, in the church of Saints Giovanni e Paolo, where the skin of Mark Antonius Bragadin (the staunch defender of Famagusta) is guarded, in the spices, and especially in the wine of Cyprus (Commandaria), that is today still recalled in Venetian sayings. The Venetian past, too, has many references in Cyprus where evidence is focused on the fortresses and fortifications of Nicosia, Famagusta and Kerynia and in the lions that adorn them as well as in traditional dishes and language. The papers presented here have been selected from 30 given at the 10th Annual Meeting of young researchers in Cypriot archaeology (POCA 10), held in Venice where it celebrated two important events: the 500th anniversary of the death of Caterina Cornaro (1454–1510) and the twinning of the cities of Venice and Larnaca.
Samarra Studies II Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 831
ISBN: 9780903472302
Pub Date: 12 May 2015
Series: Samarra Studies
Description:
The Archaeological Atlas of Samarra sets out to map and catalogue the site and buildings of the Abbasid capital at Samarra in the period 836 to 892 AD, preserved as they were until the middle years of the 20th century. Site maps and catalogues are provided of all the approximately 5819 building and site units identified. This is the first time that it has been possible to catalogue nearly all the buildings of one of the world’s largest ancient cities, from the caliph palaces to the smallest hovels.
Preludes to Urbanism Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 196
ISBN: 9781902937656
Pub Date: 07 May 2015
Series: McDonald Institute Monographs
Description:
This volume explores early complex society and nascent urbanism, based in studies of Mesopotamia during the fifth–fourth millennia bc. Urbanism in the Near East has traditionally been located in late fourthmillennium bc southern Mesopotamia (south Iraq); but recent excavations and surveys in northeast Syria and southeast Turkey have identified a distinctively northern Mesopotamian variant of this development, which can be dated to the early fourth millennium bc. The authors use multiscalar approaches, including material culturebased studies, settlement archaeology and regional surveys, to achieve an understanding of the dynamics of early urbanism across this key region.
RRP: £30.00
The Southern Transjordan Edomite Plateau and the Dead Sea Rift Valley Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9781782978329
Pub Date: 12 Mar 2015
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w and colour illustrations
Description:
Burton MacDonald presents an in-depth study of the archaeology and history of human presence over the past five-six thousand years in the southern segment of the Transjordan/Edomite Plateau and the Dead Sea Rift Valley to the west. The evidence from archaeology for the area spans the entire period though the time for which literary evidence is available is only the past 4000 years, from the Middle Bronze Age (2000-1550 BC). Once literary evidence is available, however, it complements the archaeological record and, as can be amply demonstrated, the written records can be clarified only through the archaeological data.
RRP: £60.00
The Land of Assur and the Yoke of Assur Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781782977414
Pub Date: 16 Oct 2014
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: b/w illus.
Description:
This book brings together a selection of twenty-eight previously disparate articles by Nicholas Postgate that represent some thirty years of engagement with the nature of Assyrian society and government. Most are broadly synthetic and deal with general issues; they are a tremendous body of work, and this will be an invaluable collection for everyone interested in Assyria.
Tying the Threads of Eurasia Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 408
ISBN: 9789088902444
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2014
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 200+ full colour
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.
Ritual Failure Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 180
ISBN: 9789088902208
Pub Date: 16 Dec 2013
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 16 b/w illustrations and 8 col. illustrations
Description:
‘Ritual Failure’ is a new concept in archaeology adopted from the discipline of anthropology. Resilient religious systems disappearing, strict believers and faithful practitioners not performing their rites, entire societies changing their customs: how does a religious ritual system transform, change or disappear, leaving only traces of its past glory? Do societies change and then their ritual?
Chasing Chariots Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 270
ISBN: 9789088902093
Pub Date: 30 Nov 2013
Imprint: Sidestone Press
Illustrations: 126 b/w and 89 col. illustrations
Description:
The present work is the result of the First International Chariot Conference, jointly organised by the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC) and the American University in Cairo (AUC) (30 November to 2 December 2012). The intention of the conference was to make a broad assessment of the current state of knowledge about chariots in Egypt and the Near East, and to provide a forum for discussion.A wide variety of papers are included, ranging from overviews to more detailed studies focusing on a specific topic.
Textile Terminologies in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean from the Third to the First Millennia BC Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 326
ISBN: 9781782973911
Pub Date: 10 Oct 2013
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
Written sources from the ancient Near East and eastern Mediterranean, from the third to the first millennia BC, provide a wealth of terms for textiles. The twenty-two chapters in the present volume offer the first comprehensive survey of this important material, with special attention to evidence for significant interconnections in textile terminology among languages and cultures, across space and time. For example, the Greek word for a long shirt, khiton , ki-to in Linear B, derives from a Semitic root, ktn .

Making and Breaking the Gods

Christian Responses to Pagan Sculpture in Late Antiquity
Format: Hardback
Pages: 350
ISBN: 9788771240894
Pub Date: 31 Jul 2013
Description:
Drawing on both textual and archaeological sources, this book discusses how Christians in Late Antiquity negotiated the sculptural environment of cities and sanctuaries in a variety of ways, ranging from creative transformations to iconoclastic performances. Their responses to pagan sculpture present a rich window into the mechanisms through which society and culture changed under the influence of Christianity. The book thus demonstrates how Christian responses to pagan sculpture rhetorically continued an old tradition of discussing visual practices and the materiality of divine representations.
Souvenirs and New Ideas Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 200
ISBN: 9781842178157
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2013
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: ASTENE Publications
Description:
During the 18th and 19th centuries, many travellers aimed to record their travels through Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Levant and Turkey by collecting souvenirs and mementos of places they had visited. This natural inclination took many different guises: from innocent activities such as making diaries and sketches, gathering academic knowledge or taking photographs, to acquiring souvenirs, very often antiquities. Other, more unscrupulous, travellers undertook journeys specifically to ‘collect’ antiquities to form the basis of museum collections or to profit by re-selling them.
Later Prehistory of the Badia Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 240
ISBN: 9781842174739
Pub Date: 03 May 2013
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Series: Levant Supplementary Series
Description:
The Jordanian badia is an arid region that has been largely protected from modern development by its extreme climate and has preserved a remarkably rich record of its prehistoric past. This is the second of two volumes to document extensive surveys and excavations in the region from Al-Azraq to the Iraqi border over the period 1979-1996. Broadly, it covers the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the eastern badia.
RRP: £48.00
The Transport Amphorae and Trade of Cyprus Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 244
ISBN: 9788771242133
Pub Date: 31 Jan 2013
Description:
Placed as a stepping stone on the sea route between Europe and the New East, Cyprus has always been a meeting place of many cultures. Though rarely united politically through many millennia of history - and for extended periods subject to foreign rule - the island nonetheless managed to maintain specific and unique identities. This publication seeks to throw new light on important aspects of the economy of Cyprus between c.