Bandits in the Roman Empire

The more I read about ancient history, the more I am convinced that the world has changed very little. Find out about the myth and reality of Thomas Grünewald’s Roman bandits and why we shouldn’t always believe what we read.

Middle Earth Revisited

Because the super-selling The Real Middle Earth is now out in paperback, we thought we'd take the liberty of offering a 'repeat' of our article "History became legend - and legend became history"...

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.

The Oxbow Prize for Fieldwork

The Oxbow Prize for Fieldwork is awarded annually for the best fieldwork project undertaken by final year students at the Honour School of Archaeology and Anthropology at Oxford.

This year has produced two winners: Miranda Rose for her report on "Roman Villa Construction at Butser Ancient Farm" and Darryl Wilkinson for "Excavations of a Pompeian Garden".

Congratulations to you both!

New Releases

The Dover Bronze Age boat in context: Society and water transport in prehistoric Europe
by Peter Clark
Paperback. GB £30.00

The discovery of the well preserved remains of a Bronze Age boat in Dover in 1992 was one of the most important post-war finds in Britain. The boat was of a stitched oak plank structure, and has been dated to 1550 BC. To mark the tenth anniversary of the boat's discovery, a conference was held in Dover in 2002. This publication brings to a wider audience 16 of the papers presented there, allowing all those interested in this fascinating relic to share in the findings of experts from all over Europe.

From megaliths to metals: Essays in honour of George Eogan
edited by John Bradley, John Coles, Eion Grogan, Barry Raftery and Helen Roche
Hardback. GB £50.00, GB £15.00

A truly multi-disciplinary book allowing the reader to gain insights into an exceptionally diverse set of topics such as hunting, burial, sword-production and rock art, from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages.

Glass Beads from Anglo-Saxon Graves: A Study on the Provenance and Chronology of Glass Beads from Anglo-Saxon Graves, Based on Visual Examination
by Birte Brugmann

Beads made of amber and glass are the most common type of object found in Anglo-Saxon graves, yet relatively little is known about them. In this well illustrated study, Birte Brugmann analyses a sample of 32,000 beads from graves of the 5th to 7th centuries. She creates a new typology of Anglo-Saxon glass bead types, taking into consideration materials, manufacturing techniques, decoration, colours and shapes of beads. She considers questions of bead production and bead fashion across Anglo-Saxon regions, how far they were influenced by continental and Scandinavian bead fashions, and offers a chronological framework for the Anglo-Saxon finds. Her distribution analysis suggests that some of the beads were manufactured in England, while others were imported from or via the continent. Brugmann concludes that differences in regional Anglo-Saxon bead fashions were not as pronounced as differences in contemporary brooch fashion, and that the beads therefore can contribute to a cross-regional phasing of Anglo-Saxon graves.

Tell Kosak Shamali Vol II: The Archaeological Investigations on the Upper Euphrates, Syria. Chalcolithic Technology and Subsistence
edited by Yoshihiro Nishiaki and Toshio Matsutani
Hardback. GB £40.00, GB £15.00

The second volume on Tell Kosak Shamali deals with the Chalcolithic technology and subsistence of this strategically-important site on the east bank of the Euphrates.

Conferences we will be attending

Sutton Hoo Society Conference
The Royal Hospital School, Holbrook near Ipswich (Saturday 16 October, 2004)
A well received theme, distinguished speakers and an impressive venue look set to make this a lively event and is expected to generate much interest.

YAT Archaeological and Historical Book Fair
ARC (Archaeological Resource Centre) (Saturday October 16th, 2004)
Book fair at St. Saviour's Gate, York