Book Feature: Archaeology Gets Under Your Skin

On a calm summer's evening on Sunday, 19 July, 1545, Henry VIII's flagship the Mary Rose led the English fleet out of Portsmouth Harbour. She turned a mile off shore and, perhaps in a freak gust of wind, she sank in full view of the King. Nothing brings us closer to the tragedy of this event than the analysis of the mass of Human Bones that were found tangled in the wreckage. Of course, as other recent titles demonstrate, the study of human bones can tell us so much more about our ancestors than sensational stories of human misadventure ...

Book Feature: Is Vlad the Impaler the ultimate bogeyman?

Son of the Devil, 'Bloodthirsty Madman', cruel count and warlord - these are just some of the complimentary phrases used to describe the legendary VLAD, otherwise known as 'The Impaler'. Vlad staunchly defended his principality of Wallachia, and Christianity, against the threat posed by the Ottomans. So where did this hero go wrong? How did he get such a bad reputation and how much of the legend is true? Two new books attempt to answer all your questions about the historical Dracula.

Book Feature: Coins and medals, medals and coins

If you are one of that special breed of the human race who is interested in things numismatic, then you may want to know that two new mighty tomes have appeared on our shelves, and oh what earthly riches they offer ...

Kate's Top Ten New Bargains for Spring 2003

This Winter an unprecedented number of new bargains arrived at Oxbow Books and, while many titles reflect our recent labours on the Medieval World 2003-2004 catalogue, there are plenty of non-medieval bargains for those with Egyptian, Near Eastern, Prehistoric and Classical leanings.

Other views of The Mind in the Cave

The interview I did with Dr Paul Bahn in the 'Meet the Author' section of the March 2003 OXeN was rather critical of The Mind in the Cave by David Lewis-Williams. The author and the publisher, Thames & Hudson, have asked me to point out that many distinguished scholars are extremely supportive of the book and this I am more than happy to do. It is always refreshing for us, as an archaeological bookseller, to discover books that present archaeology in an exciting way. As well as reading the following reviews I hope that you will buy The Mind in the Cave and make your own judgements. - Charles Watkinson.

[Please note: The Mind in the Cave section of the Paul Bahn interview has been removed from our website.]

Of all the new books that have passed over the desks of the Oxbow staff this month, these, for whatever reason, are the ones that grabbed their attention.

Meet the Author: Jean Auel

Jean Auel is one of the world's best selling novelists. In her Earth's Children® series she explores the remarkable world of Ice Age Europe, presenting a rich picture of human interactions in a changing social and climatic environment. The last instalment in the series, Shelters of Stone, was recently published by Hodder & Stoughton. Jean and her husband are some our oldest customers, and so it was a great pleasure to make contact and ask Jean how she got into writing archaeological fiction, and what she thinks about current Palaeolithic research.

Meet the Author: Chris Snyder

Since the 1980s Christopher Snyder's work on post-Roman Britain has been published all over the world. As well as writing numerous journal articles and bestselling books, Chris has recently been presenter of "Arthur, King of the Britons" for BBC1 and The Learning Channel. He is now Chair of the Department of History and Politics at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. His new book on The Britons has just been published by Blackwell, so we decided to ask him what it's all about.

Conferences, A Reminder

"Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote ... thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages"

Chaucer's pilgrims were amateurs compared to the thousands of archaeologists, classicists and medievalists who hit the roads and the airports this month in their trek to some of the biggest and brightest gatherings of the academic year. And where you go, we go ... you can find Oxbow Books and David Brown Book Company stands all over the UK and North America this April.

In the UK a large number of Roman books are tramping their way to Leicester on 3rd of April to appear at the joint Roman Archaeology and Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference, while some earlier Classical materials (featuring especially our new Aris & Phillips imprint) will be present in Coventry on 12th of April for the Classical Association Centenary Meeting.

The Institute of Field Archaeologists comes to Bangor in North Wales on the 15th of April where Oxbow will have a large display of theory and method books and journals, including special displays from Blackwell, Cambridge University Press, English Heritage and Routledge.

Add to these some smaller displays, such as the UK Archaeological Science 2003 meeting in Oxford on April 2 to 5, and a very full month on the road is developing.

In the USA three large conferences dominate the David Brown Book Company's schedule. The Society for American Archaeology rashly enters the brewing town of Milwaukee on the 9th of April; a decision most archaeologists, as teetotallers, will disapprove of (?!). And The Medieval Academy of America meets this year in Minneapolis, high up on the Mississippi, on the very next day, namely the 10th of April.

At the end of the month, from April 25, the Egyptologists arrive at Emory University in Atlanta, a centre of Near Eastern and Egyptological research, to join the American Research Centre in Egypt meetings.

Please do come and meet us at any of these events. As well as being able to see and buy the latest and best books in your favourite discipline you will find many great special offers on display. For even more conferences in April see our list of meetings.

The Romans return to Ratae

This weekend's gathering of Roman archaeologists in Leicester – the joint meeting of RAC and TRAC ( the Roman Archaeology Conference and the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference) – will hear about early Roman towns in Spain, the landscape of the Tiber valley, mining and quarrying in Roman Egypt, all sorts of new things about Roman Britain, and lots more besides. Siegmar van Schnurbein will be talking about an early Roman town in north Germany that was abandoned after the Varus disaster in 9 AD; the Vice-Chancellor, on one day, and the Lord Mayor, on another day, will be 'receiving' participants, one imagines with refreshment; but the high point of the meeting for me will be the presentation of a Festschrift to John Wacher, the doyen of Roman town studies and Leicester's first professor of Roman Archaeology. The book is called, of course, The Archaeology of Roman Towns, and is edited by Pete Wilson. It contains a lively selection of papers by John's friends and colleagues and it is published, most appropriately, by us! Appropriate because Oxbow would not exist had it not been that I had found working on John's excavations at Cirencester was so agreeable a mixture of physical, intellectual and social challenges that I returned year after year to his trenches and was easily and quickly converted from my planned career to archaeology. Thank you, John, for that excellent start. It is a pleasure to be able to publish this book in your honour. – David Brown

Other New Releases

Some other new Oxbow titles to hit the shelves this month include:

New Catalogue: Medieval World 2003

The new edition of Oxbow Books' Medieval World catalogue is now at the printers and will be mailed out in a couple of weeks. You can get a sneak preview of what's in it by downloading various sections in .PDF format from our website.

Please note, however, that these files currently only list prices in pounds sterling - US customers should stay tuned for a US dollar version which should be available on the DBBC website by the end of the month.

This catalogue is our biggest ever and contains more than 1,500 new and recently published books on all aspects of medieval history, archaeology, art, society, philosophy and literature, including the Viking world, the Anglo-Saxons, the Norman Conquest, the Byzantine Empire, Post-Roman Britain and Europe, the Islamic world and Early Christianity.

Along with the main catalogue, which in itself contains lots of special offers on new books, there will also be large list of bargains and other special deals.

You can also request a paper copy.

Oxbow and The London Book Fair

The London Book Fair takes place every March at Kensington Olympia. It represents the largest international gathering of people from the publishing industry after the Frankfurt Book Fair. Hundreds of publishers go to the Fair to exhibit their wares (and themselves) with a view to selling rights, buying new titles from literary agents, meeting their customers (and potential customers), seeing their overseas representatives and distributors, and investigating new technology ... you name it, if it's related to the publishing industry it happens at the London Book Fair! For many years, members of the Oxbow crew have wandered the aisles as itinerant visitors; but this year, for the first time, we had our own display stand. Being able to stay in one place gave us a whole new perspective on the Fair - we saw a wonderful cross-section of people walking past, from Russian library suppliers to the head of Cambridge University Press, and lots of buyers from small independent bookshops. And happily many of them stopped off to say hello and look at our books. We of course continued to seek out new titles and new remainders for you the customer, many of which will appear in the next Book News in May and the Medieval World catalogue.