Drama? I'll give you drama!

The BBC might think they’ve got a drama on their hands in their forthcoming series Egypt, but that’s nothing compared to this lot…

Manuscript Madness

Here at Oxbow we have a selection of new and forthcoming books in manuscript form. Each is available to buy for just £5 each, on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

Conference Moments

David Brown gives an overview of the Oxbow conference season.

Cambridge Illuminations

David Brown sees the light in Cambridge…

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.

Prizes

Congratulations to ARIS & PHILLIPS author Robin Chapman who has won the Literary Harvest Prize in France, the reward for which comes in the form of 200 bottles of wine!

Summer Sale

New Releases

Shadows of a Northern Past: Rock Carvings of Bohuslän and Ostfold
by John Coles
Hardback. GB £35.00, GB £10.00

This book is the outcome of a prolonged period of discovery and research into the Bronze Age rock carvings of Bohuslän (Sweden) and Østfold (Norway). Over 100 of the most complex and varied sites, containing many thousands of images, are presented in new plans and photographs. The variety and precision of the methods of recording have revealed hitherto unknown carvings and new details on many of the sites, including some of the best-known sites in all of Sweden and Norway. The images, of boats, humans, wheeled vehicles, wild and domesticated animals, ards, weapons and other symbols demonstrate great variability. A structural analysis permits some identification of particular artists, whilst the identification of dated styles of boat images allows some element of specific chronology to be presented. Over 800 rock carving sites, and their contemporary monuments, are mapped and described in terms of the evolving landscapes of the period 1500 - 300 BC. The current excavation programmes at the base of sites are outlined as well as the likely relationship between rock carvings and adjacent wetlands. The area explored in the book includes the World Heritage region in western Sweden and the whole territory of rock carvings examined forms one of Europe's greatest prehistoric cultural treasures.

Mesolithic Studies at the Beginning of the 21st Century
edited by Nicky Milner and Peter Woodman
Paperback. GB £30.00

The term 'Mesolithic' was born in the nineteenth century from the need to label a 'hiatus' period and was not generally accepted as a useful term by many scholars until around fifty years later. It has been championed by some, but still concerns others because of the difficulty of defining what it represents. This volume highlights the enthusiasm for Mesolithic studies in the 21st century and the feeling that there is a need to explore the many facets of Mesolithic lifeways. Approaches are now moving away from the traditional Mesolithic canon that seems to have been based on a particular set of biological and/or ecological perspectives and are now looking for new directions and new theoretical arenas which can only help stimulate Mesolithic debate. The papers in this volume take a range of approaches to a period that has largely been devoid of explicit theoretical discussion. They deconstruct and explore a broad variety of subjects, including mobility, complexity, seasonality, death & burial, gender & sexuality, social relations, music, human agency, ethnoarchaeology and emotion.

Vicars Choral at English Cathedrals: Cantate Domino: History, Architecture And Archaeology
edited by Richard Hall and David Stocker
Hardback. GB £60.00, GB £15.00

Staffing medieval cathedrals was always a problem. Some English cathedrals introduced monks, but almost half of them put themselves in the hands of secular priests (canons). As cathedrals became complex 'prayer factories' between the 12th and 16th centuries, the canons appointed Vicars Choral to perform liturgical functions in their stead. From the moment of their first appearance in the 12th century, there was concern about the vicars' morals and behaviour and, for more than 400 years, cathedral deans struggled to impose discipline. Eventually all of the English cathedral vicars were subjected to quasi-monastic discipline in carefully regulated colleges, which were strategically located within the close and formed a very distinctive group of ecclesiastical buildings, which were ancestors of the Oxbridge colleges. Several of these important medieval building complexes have survived, but significant traces of all nine colleges - Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, St Paul's London, Salisbury, Wells and York - have been recovered in this study. As these colleges survived the Reformation, most retain extraordinarily rich archives, which modern historical scholarship is only just starting to explore. For the first time, this volume brings together the wealth of architectural, archaeological and historical information relating to these major, but little known, medieval institutions. It reveals an extraordinary interdisciplinary resource that can be used to understand, not just the working of individual colleges and cathedrals, but also the life and work of the lower orders of medieval clergy in England.