Top Five Bestsellers 2005

As we near the end of the year and publishers release their list of bestsellers for 2005, I’m sure you’re all dying to know which books have filled the top 5 spots in Oxbow’s bestseller list!

Material Culture Rules, OK!

The Age of Transition? Put your finger on that one – it's a long way from the Bronze Age! How about 'between the Reformation and the Restoration', that fertile century and a half when Medieval became Modern? And its material culture? Well, read on for that...

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

Euripides: Andromache
with an introduction, translation and commentary by M. Lloyd

Andromache, written in the early years of the Peloponnesian War, shows the effects of war on the conquerors and the conquered. The other main theme is the role and nature of women, explored through the conflict between the contrasting figures of Andromache and Hermione. The play has a bold and original structure, which finds room for paranoia, nymphomania, racialism, blackmail, treachery, mental breakdown, elopement and revenge. The climax is a messenger speech describing the lynching of Neoptolemus in the temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Aristophanes: Peace
edited, with a translation, notes and addenda by Alan H. Sommerstein
Hardback. US$14.98
Paperback. US$36.00
Hardback. US$59.95

In Peace, produced in 421 B.C., Aristophanes celebrates in anticipation the conclusion, after ten years, of the great war with Sparta. Peace, we are made to see, is within the grasp of the Greek peoples; let them make one final effort, and all difficulties and dangers will evaporate in the joys of feasting and rustic leisure. The substantial addition in this second edition are eighteen pages of addenda to the Notes and Bibliography. Contents: Text with facing translation, commentary and notes. New edition with addenda.

Conferences we will be attending

Theoretical Archaeology Group
Sheffield (Monday 19 December, 2005 - Wednesday 21 December, 2005)
Session proposals are invited for the TAG 2005 conference at the University of Sheffield. All aspects of archaeological theory are welcome. In an age of new uncertainties and threats, real and imagined, we would particularly welcome sessions that address the theme of humanity, the nature of its diversity and the extent of its unity.
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/tag2005/

British Association of Near Eastern Archaeologists' Annual Meeting
Edinburgh (Thursday 05 January, 2006 - Saturday 07 January, 2006)
Near Eastern archaeologists are now confronted with a sometimes-bewildering range of mechanisms and processes that are deployed to explain the “big issues” such as the rise of urbanism or the Neolithic revolution. This conference intends to address the broad range of factors that contributed to the development of Near Eastern Civilization. “Environment” is here considered to embrace both social and physical contexts. Sessions and workshops will be devoted to topics encompassing a diverse spectrum of perspectives, techniques and data.
http://www.arcl.ed.ac.uk/banea/