All You Need is Love

If you're stuck for inspiration this Valentine's Day, why not surprise your loved one with some Greek or Roman love poetry!

Wharram Percy: the story continues

For 40 years, an army of volunteer archaeologists gathered for three weeks very summer to unearth the secrets of the deserted medieval village of Wharram Percy on the Yorkshire Wolds. The excavation at Wharram Percy revolutionised understanding of the medieval and post-medieval landscape. Now a final chapter in a "tale of heroic archaeology" has been marked by the publication of Wharram Volumes VIII and IX, with the backing of English Heritage.

Hidden Layers in the Bayeux Tapestry

The Battle of Hastings and its aftermath loom large in England's history - after all, 1066 was the last time that we were invaded by a foreign power. The most famous source for this period is of course the Bayeux Tapestry, but perhaps we should take another look at this great cloth...

Minster Blair and the Anglo-Saxon Church

Who would have thought that playing in ditches could prove so fruitful?

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

Radiocarbon and Archaeology: Fourth International Symposium, St Catherine's College, Oxford (9-14th April, 2002)
edited by Tom HIgham, Bronk Ramsey and Clare Owen
Paperback. GB £35.00, GB £6.95

Radiocarbon dating covers the most recent span of geo-archaeological time, back to c.55,000 years BP. The list of applications and disciplines it can be used for is wide-ranging and burgeoning. It is used widely in dating aspects of the Earth's environmental, oceanographic and atmospheric systems. It is used as a tracer in investigating residence times of carbon in soils, rivers, oceans and lakes, and to document the movements of oceanic water and its circulation and exchange with the atmosphere. It is also used in aerosol science, and is crucial to studies of Earth's changing climate. This wide relevance of the 14C isotope means that one must be something of a polymath to understand, and it was for this reason that in 1981 the first '14C and Archaeology' Symposium was held. Its aim: to provide a wider forum for studies of prehistoric chronology than would normally be allowed at the Radiocarbon conferences.

The Emergence of Civilisation Revisited
edited by John C Barrett and Paul Halstead

The history of archaeology is a history of great discoveries and a history of the debate about the human condition. It is a history of how we understand and link to our history, and it is unsurprising then that archaeology changes over time, bringing new perspectives to our view of the past. Thirty years on from Colin Renfrew's landmark publication, The Emergence of Civilisation, a group of Aegean prehistorians came together as part of the Sheffield Centre for Aegean Archaeology's Round Table discussions to acknowledge this ground-breaking work and to bring the subject up to date. They focus on the themes that Renfrew brought to archaeology through this work, and which continue to be of significance today: the way we characterise the context and the nature of change; the methodological procedures that should be followed; and the interpretation of the dynamics of past societies.

Jomon Reflections: Forager life and culture in the prehistoric Japanese archipelago
by Kobayashi Tatsuo and Simon Kaner

A fully-illustrated introduction to the archaeology of the Jomon period in Japan, this book explores the complex relationships between Jomon people and their rich natural environment. From the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago to the appearance of rice agriculture around 400 BC, Jomon people subsisted by hunting, fishing and gathering; but abundant and predictable sources of wild food enabled Jomon people to live in large, relatively permanent settlements, and to develop an elaborate material culture. This book explores thematic issues in Jomon archaeology: the appearance of sedentism in the Japanese archipelago and the nature of Jomon settlements; the invention of pottery and the development and meaning of regional pottery styles; social and spiritual life; as well as the astronomical significance of causeway monuments and the conceptualisation of landscape in the Jomon period. These ideas are considered in the light of current work in the European Mesolithic and Neolithic, setting Jomon archaeology within a global context. The book draws extensively on new archaeological information from various parts of Japan, including the sites of Sannai Maruyama, Isedotai, Komankino among others. Extensive colour illustrations provide a vivid demonstration of Jomon ideology and creativity.