The Return of the Olympics

Does anyone not know that the Olympics is returning home this year? Certainly, authors and publishers are grasping with both hands this golden opportunity to immerse themselves fully in ancient Greek culture. Here is a selection of the many books that have already been published headed by my personal favourite, Ancient Greek Athletics by Stephen Miller. No doubt, and of this I am very sure, there are more to come.

Letters from the Desert ... the correspondence of Flinders and Hilda Petrie

"They did not attempt to search all the baggage but grabbed out a new suit and a couple of flannel shirts from my portmanteau." Flinders Petrie describing a rather gentlemanly mugging he received in a letter home to his intended, Hilda. Letters from the Desert is a beautifully-presented volume of the letters that Flinders and Hilda wrote from Egypt during the early years of the last century.

Have you got a Leeds loyalty badge ?

It's nothing to do with football though, heaven knows, poor Leeds United's supporters need to be showing their loyalty in no uncertain terms at the moment. No, I'm talking about Medieval Leeds as it happens every July at the Bodington and Weetwood Halls on the outskirts of the city - the annual re-enactment that is the International Medieval Congress. Will you be there? Will you be there again? We will!
www.leeds.ac.uk/imi/imc/imc2004/imc2004.htm

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.

New Releases

Lithics in Action
edited by Elizabeth A Walker, Francis Wenban-Smith and Frances Healy
Hardback. GB £60.00, GB £15.00

Most of these 28 papers were originally presented at the conference Lithic Studies in the Year 2000, hosted by the Lithic Studies Society in Cardiff, 2000. The original purpose of the conference was to celebrate the coming of age of the Lithic Studies Society in its twenty-first year, and to consider the state of research and potential new developments in lithic analysis at the beginning of the twenty-first century AD. The papers have been divided into three thematic sections. In the first section, "Behaviour and cognition in the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic", the contributors look at ways to reconstruct past human behaviours and cognitive capabilites from periods when lithic evidence is the primary, and sometimes the only source of evidence. Most focus on undisturbed lithic sites and use the analysis of refitted lithic artefacts to approach questions of technology, taphonomy, and the human use of space. In the second section, "Rocks, residues and use-wear", the contributors are concerned with the study of the original characteristics of rocks from different areas of the earth's surface, the selection of specific raw materials for manufacture into tools, the uses to which these tools were put, and how they were used. In the final section, "After hunter-gatherers", the contributors consider the role of lithics in increasingly complex societies and exchange networks, where lithics form just one strand of evidence among many.

Secular Buildings and the Archaeology of Everyday Life in the Byzantine Empire
edited by Ken Dark

The archaeology of everyday life is a relatively under-explored aspect of the Byzantine world, and often takes a back-seat to the more visible aspects of Byzantine history, such as works of art and ecclesiastical architecture. This book seeks to redress the imbalance by focusing on some of the available evidence for the 'everyday' in Byzantine houses and towns: the archaeology of secular domestic structures. Several papers bring together and reinterpret much of what is known of Byzantine housing, from Italy and Greece to North Africa and the East Mediterranean, from the fifth to fifteenth centuries. Other topics include a review of the rich archaeological data for domestic and commercial activities from the Byzantine shops at Sardis; a re-examination of the relationship between domestic artefacts and religious identity in Early Byzantine Israel; and a reinterpretation of the most extensively studied (and grandest) of all Byzantine houses: the Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors at Constantinople.

Letters from the Desert: The Correspondence of Flinders and Hilda Petrie
edited by Margaret Drower
Hardback. GB £35.00, GB £10.00

Flinders Petrie began his long association with ancient Egypt and the Near East when he went to Giza to survey the pyramids in 1880. He continued to dig almost until his death in Jerusalem in 1942. During his long career he revolutionised Egyptian archaeology and indeed can be said to have founded modern scientific archaeology. But this book is not concerned with his scientific work, except tangentially, as Petrie had an admirable practice of publishing his excavations soon after they were completed. These letters and journals have been selected for their vivid account of living in Egypt and Palestine over sixty years. Even more they describe Petrie's austere approach to a dig where the archaeology was everything and creature comforts near non-existent. Many anecdotes survive of life on one of Petrie's digs and the reality as revealed in these accounts is just as eccentric. Astonishingly when Flinders married Hilda she took to the Petrie system like a duck to water (usually lacking). Her accounts of life in the camp and of the workmen and villagers are just as alive and vibrant as his. In this book anyone interested in archaeology and Ancient Egypt can experience the unique atmosphere of life on a Petrie dig. The book also includes colour reproductions of Hilda and Flinders Petrie's watercolours.

Dolaucothi-Pumsaint: Survey and Excavations at a Roman Gold-Mining Complex 1987-1999
by Barry and Helen Burnham
Hardback. GB £60.00, GB £20.00

Dolaucothi, near the modern village of Pumsaint in south-west Wales, is the only site in Britain where the Romans are known certainly to have mined for gold. The main workings, which are thought to span various phases of exploitation from the pre-Roman through to the present, can be traced over a distance of more than a kilometre. This volume reports on a series of investigations carried out at this important complex over a period of 12 years. These investigations have helped to clarify several aspects of the mine's development, the technologies involved, and the impact of the mines on the wider cultural and environmental landscape during the later 1st and 2nd centuries, when the Romans had a major presence in the Dolaucothi area. The volume includes reports on: the new excavations and survey of the Roman fort and vicus at the village of Pumsaint; the excavation and survey of various leat systems which supplied water to the mines; excavations in the vicinity of a possible mill complex, which revealed new evidence about ore crushing and processing; the geophysical survey of the east side of the fort at Pumsaint, which revealed an extensive area of civilian settlement; excavations in the vicinity of a possible bath-house; geophysical survey and excavation in the vicinity of the Roman road from Llandovery to Pumsaint, which revealed further evidence of civilian settlement; and an overview of the recent detailed surface survey of the mine workings. The authors also provide a history of previous excavations and research at the site.

Catalogues

During the last month the catalogue department has produced Book News 60.

• Method, Theory, Conservation, Prehistory, Egypt, the Near East, and Asia (155 Kb)
• The Greek and Hellenistic Worlds, Etruscan Studies, Roman World (128 Kb)
• Early Medieval, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Post-Medieval (136 Kb)

• Bargains and Special Offers (59 Kb)

Conferences we will be attending

International Medieval Congress 2004 (LEEDS)
University of Leeds (UK) (Monday 12 July, 2004 - Thursday 15 July, 2004)
On 13 April 1204, the world's greatest Christian city, Constantinople, was sacked by the forces of the Fourth Crusade. In 2004, the IMC will reflect on this event by dedicating a special thematic strand, comprising 24 sessions, to Clash of Cultures. Oxbow's usual large stand, selling books to around 1200 delegates, will be present.

Cut-price Classics! Time to pick up some gr-r-reat Greek and Roman sale bargains

Another shelf-sweeping sale selection ............of some of our older Greek and Roman titles.