Landscapes and Desire - Catherine Tuck & Alun Bull

Hardback, 256pp. Sutton Publishing, 2003

An investigation into the sexually inspired landscapesand monuments of Britain. Amusing and fascinating. From Men-A-Tol to landscaped gardens to Victorian Britain. It's all here!

A review by Anthony Weir at the Megalithic Portal

Only £9.99+p&p Published price £20, a saving of over 50%

Timewalkers: The Prehistory of Global Colonization - Clive Gamble

Paperback, 320 pages, The History Press Ltd, 2003

As soon as we ask why "we are the only animal with a near-global distribution", argues Clive Gamble, the central truth emerges: "Humans went everywhere in prehistory because humans have purpose." His book uses this perspective to reinterpret three million years of archaeology, showing how the earliest humans of the African savannah spread out to other continents, along the Old World track, and eventually colonized the world. On the way occurred "the meeting of the Ancients and the Moderns - the European Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons - celebrated in many illustrations, motion pictures and novels". Scientific detective work can now illuminate all these issues, revealing what we are today through the study of our origins.

Only £4.99+p&p Published price £12.99, a saving of over 60%

The Later Roman Empire - Richard Reece

Paperback, 192 Pages, Tempus, 2007

This analysis of the changes - especially those in the visual arts - which occurred between AD 150 and 600, and led into the medieval world has been widely hailed as a masterpiece: 'Books by Richard Reece are typically individual, opinionated and insightful; and this is no exception.' - "British Archaeology". 'Richard Reece's writing is always stimulating; this book will appeal to both specialists and enthusiasts.' - "Oxbow Book News". 'His lucid 'user friendly' expositions of both familiar and less familiar monuments must have made this a stimulating lecture course.' - "Antiquaries Journal". 'Clear exposition of the evidence combined with a wish to make it approachable.' - "Britannia".

Only £4.99+p&p Published price £17.99, a saving of over 70%

Dying for the Gods: Human Sacrifice in Iron Age and Roman Europe - by Miranda J. Green (Miranda Aldhouse Green)

Paperback, 240 pages, NPI Media Group (Tempus), New Edition 2002

Sacrifice, like death, is one of the great taboos of modern society. The notion that human sacrifice - 'murder most horrid' - and even cannibalism could be considered a most holy act is almost inconceivable. Yet the evidence for human sacrifice in north-west Europe, deriving from both archaeology and the testimony of Classical writers of the first centuries BC/AD, has to be confronted.

Professor Green puts forward some reasons for ritual murder and shows how the multiple deposits of bog-bodies at sites like Tollund and Lindow illustrate the importance of place in the sacrificial rite. She also highlights the essential role of the priesthood in sacrificial murder.

Review by Simon James in British Archaeology

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Roman Britain - T.W. Potter, Catherine Johns

Paperback, 248 pages, British Museum Press, 2002

Relying on the most recent archaeological evidence as well as on ancient artifacts, T.W. Potter and Catherine Johns assess the impact of the Roman invasion of A.D. 43 to provide a complete picture of Roman Britain. In the context of Britain's place in the empire as a whole, they survey the effect of Romanization in town and country, in the arts, architecture, and religion.

The authors, both curators of the Romano-British collection of the British Museum, have an unrivalled, day-to-day familiarity with the material evidence, including such notable discoveries as the Thetford and Snettisham treasures, the Vindolanda tablets, and the unique building facade from Meonstoke, which only came to light in 1989. The rich silverware, jewelry, and mosaics, as well as more utilitarian objects are discussed in detail.

Providing the general reader with an up-to-date synthesis of this important period, the book also offers new contributions to long-standing problems that will interest scholars. Like the other volumes in this series, it contains a comprehensive bibliography and gazeteer for those planning to visit Romano-British sites.

Only £5.99+p&p Published price £14.99, a saving of over 60%

Bill Wyman's Treasure Islands: Britain's History Uncovered - Bill Wyman, Richard Havers

Hardcover, 320 pages, Sutton Publishing, 2005

Bill Wyman bought his first metal detector in 1991 and re-visited a childhood interest in history by exploring the landscape around his Suffolk home. A few finds later, he was hooked. This book tells the story of how this famous Rolling Stone became interested in archaeology, how he records and identifies his finds and the importance of the portable Antiquities Scheme and The Treasure Act of 1996. After a brief history of Britain from the Bronze Age to the present day, accompanied by a timeline of important dates and discoveries, the main part of the book comprises a gazetteer of places and findspots across Britain and Ireland, listing what was found, when and where.

From 352 silver coins dating the the 13th century found on the beach at Dunwich in Suffolk, to a gold Viking bracelet found in Paignton near Torbay, there are thousands of artefacts listed here (though most are coins), accompanied by photographs and comment. Whether you want to look up what has been found near where you live, or you have a metal detector and want to try your luck in another area, this is a good place to start your search.

Read a review and interview with Bill in the Yorkshire Post

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The Humber Wetlands: The Archaeology of a Dynamic Landscape - Robert Van De Noort

Paperback, 208 pages, Windgather Press, 2004

Part of the Landscapes of Britain series; Robert Van de Noort explores people's experience of the Humber wetlands over the last 10,000 years. Key themes in his book are: the uses of natural resources in prehistory; the evidence for prehistoric wetland settlement, such as the famous lake dwellings at Holderness; the area's unparalleled prehistoric boats; the role of natural places and ancestor cults, and the impact of the Romans and the Vikings. A hidden world still lies under the flat and featureless fields.

Link to the Humber Wetlands Project

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Discovering a Welsh Landscape: Archaeology in the Clwydian Range - Ian Brown (Author), Mick Sharp and Jean Williamson (Photography)

Paperback, 181 pages, Windgather Press, 2004

Part of the Landscapes of Britain series. In the far north-east corner of Wales, a line of hills looks east across the plain into England, guarding the way towards Snowdonia. Designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Clwydian Range has a very rich archaeology. This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of this landscape: a history of Wales in microcosm. At the northern end of the Welsh March, the Clwydian Range is a crossroads, a place where outside influences have always been profound. The book consequently places the Range's archaeology in the context of the broader themes in Welsh and British history. Througout, the photographs capture the spirit of Hopkins' original "landscape plotted and pieced."

Only £7.99+p&p Published price £16.99, a saving of over 60%

Landscapes for the World: Conserving a Global Heritage - Peter Fowler

Paperback, 235 pages, Windgather Press, 2004

Part of the Landscapes of Britain series. The best of the world's cultural landscapes - the results of humanity's interaction with the environment over millennia - are a legacy of enormous importance. Since 1992 the international community has begun to protect these special places, through UNESCO's World Heritage Programme. This book asks why these places matter to all of us. It also takes us on a tour of the landscapes so far inscribed on the World Heritage List. The book explores some extraordinary places, which anyone interested in landscape would wish to visit: places such as the Tongariro volcanic landscape in New Zealand; The Portuguese port wine region of Alto Douro; and the rice-growing terraces of the Cordilleras in the Philippines. The author, who has been actively involved in the inscription process, asks how we can recognise a World Heritage landscape, and discusses the politics of designation and conservation.

Read a talk by the author "STONEHENGE, AVEBURY and OTHER LANDSCAPES in THE WORLD" (PDF - new window)

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Cornwall in Prehistory - Toni-Maree Rowe

Paperback, 168 pages, Tempus Publishing, May 2005, ISBN: 0752434403

Cornwall in Prehistory provides an introduction to this fascinating era in Cornwall's past. It is divided on the basis of the traditional chronology starting with the hunter-gatherers and ending in the Iron Age, with each chapter concluding with suggestions for places to visit. Other chapters include discussions on how archaeologists know what they know and some alternative means of investigating our prehistoric past, including the role of myth and legend. Cornwall in Prehistory is written with the beginner in mind; it is a starting point for further discussion and investigation by those who are keen to find out more.

Read a (somewhat snotty) review by someone from the Prehistoric Society

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Prehistoric Art - Jean-Pierre Mohen

Hardback, 208 pages, Editions Pierre Terrail, 2002, Language: English

Part of the Terrail series of large, colour-illustrated studies on artists, movements or architecture. A study of art in prehistoric caves such as Altamira in Spain and the Lascaux cave in France, demonstrating the symbolism and rituals represented by prehistoric art. 12?x10?, colour throughout

Only £6.99+p&p Published price £14.99, a saving of over 60%

Revealing the Landscape: 10,000 Years on a Chalkland Farm - Martin Green

Paperback 176 pages, May 2000, Publisher: Tempus

The Down Farm landscape (where the author's family has farmed for generations) is one of the most carefully studied areas in western Europe. Much of this work has been carried out by the author himself - who in 1992 won the Pitt Rivers award for independent archaeology. He and his work was featured in a memorable BBC 2 'Meet the Ancesters' programme.

The farm is part of the Cranborne Chase, just south of Salisbury (where, coincidentally, the famous General Pitt Rivers began his pioneering work in the 1880s). It not only contains the Neolithic Dorset Cursus, numerous long barrows and Hambledon Hill, but over the last 30 years henges, shafts, plastered houses, land divisions, enclosures and cemeteries have been identified and excavated. The farm has its own museum and for the book the author has provided a unique range of illustrations (including full-colour reconstructions).

As Professor Richard Bradley writes in his Foreword: 'This project makes a nonsense of the distinction between amateur and professional that has done much damage to archaeology in this country. Martin must be the most professional amateur in Britain, but his work is so important that the term is simply not sufficient. His achievement is unique and this book shows us why.'

Only £8.99+p&p Published price £17.99

Guidestones to the Great Langdale Axe Factories: Ancient Ways to Stone Axe Working Sites in the English Lake District - Gabriel M Blamires

Paperback 144 pages (June 2005)

The use of standing stones and other rocks to mark prehistoric routes is not unknown, but it is seldom studied. Gabriel Blamire's scholarly and well-researched study of possible routes to the Langdale axe factories is a model for others to follow. Meticulously documented, mapped and photographed with full grid references, this book will enable other field researchers and fell walkers to go out into Langdale and look for themselves. This book has nothing to with leylines, but everything to do with how Neolithic people may have moved around, marked their routes and posted guides. It will also appeal to those readers intrigued by British rock art.

Read the rest of the review by Thorgrim at the Megalithic Portal

Price £10.99+p&p

Prehistoric houses at Sumburgh in Shetland - Jane Downes and Raymond Lamb

138p, drawings and plates, Oxbow Books 2000, Paperback.

Excavations at Sumburgh Airport in the 1960s and 70s discovered stone-built houses of the later Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. This report describes the results of the excavations (stone walls, paved areas, hearths, cubicles) and of the analysis of the stratigraphy and the position of the artefacts. It shows how one house was added to the other, and how both were then substantially modified. Comparison with other sites shows that the two-house unit was a feature of the later Bronze Age in Shetland in contrast to earlier Bronze Age oval houses and later Iron Age circular houses divided by radial piers, and that longevity of occupation was usual with the three house forms suceeding each other as here at Sumburgh.

Only £9.95+p&p Published price £20, a saving of over 50%

Metallurgical Reports on British and Irish Bronze Age Implements and Weapons in the Pitt Rivers Museum - I M Allen, D Britton and H H Coghlan

Paperback 283 pages, December 1970, Publisher: Pitt Rivers Museum (Occasional Papers on Technology 10)

Fascinating for all interested in Bronze Age Weaponry. Metallurgical reports on the Museum's collection of copper and bronze tools and weapons, including a detailed illustrated catalogue of the objects.

Only £8.95+p&p

The Logboats of Scotland - Robert J C Mowat

166p, 46 figs Published by Oxbow Books (Monograph 68), 1996. Paperback.

This study of Scottish logboats, dugouts and related items like paddles and oars reveals a long history extending from the Bronze Age, and perhaps much earlier, to the end of the Middle Ages. It includes a complete descriptive gazetteer of finds with drawings and photographs, together with an analysis of the boats, their size, construction, distribution and dating (with up-to-date radiocarbon dates).

"The Logboats of Scotland is extensively illustrated, dominated by beautiful and accurate line drawings. A beautiful and well structured book..." Torben Ballin, Scottish Archaeological Review

Only £9.95+p&p Published price £24.95, a saving of over 60%

The Bull of Minos - Leonard Cottrell

Sutton 2003 (Originally 1963) 254 pages Paperback Illustrated ISBN 0750933364 Published Price £8.99

Perhaps the best known of Leonard Cottrell's numerous books on archaeology, The Bull of Minos tells the story of the important discoveries made by Heinrich Schliemann and Sir Arthur Evans. (Minotaur is Greek for "Bull of Minos"). These pioneering archaeologists brought to light the ruins of Troy, the treasure-laden tombs of the Mycenaean kings and the palace at Knossos on Crete, to reveal the extraordinary cultures which were remembered in the later Greek myths. All in all a classic look at the Minoans and Mycenaens and a great read.

New Low Price: £1.99+p&p Published price £8.99, a saving of over 65%

Use Wear Analysis and Obsidian: Theory, Experiments and Results - Linda M Hurcombe

Sheffield Archaeological Monographs, Hardcover, 248 pages, 1992, ISBN 0906090423

This volume investigates a technique for the functional analysis of obsidian tools and a small archaeological case study: the lunates from the Bronze Age Sardinian site of Ortu Comidu is examined using the technique and approach. It reviews the current state of flint use wear studies and applies the theories generated there to obsidian. The experimental programme shows the potential success of the technique, which can allow the use action and use material to be interpreted, and demonstrates the limitations. Residues play an important role as they are more easily seen on obsidian than flint. The discussion includes an assessment of wear formation theories and the role of functional information within archaeology. The technique and approach is brought to bear on a small archaeologucal case study: the lunates from the Bronze Age Sardinian site of Ortu Comidu.

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Stone Age Soundtracks, The Acoustic Archaeology of Ancient Sites - Paul Devereux

Paperback, 160 pages, Vega, 2001

Companion to Channel Four's "Secrets of the Dead: Sounds from the Stone Age". This fascinating book examines research in acoustics of ancient sites and demonstrates that they were deliberately constructed and used to enhance ritual sounds. Inc. colour plates.

Review by White Dragon

Only £2.99+p&p Published price £12.99

Little Ouseburn Barrow - Philip Rahtz

Paperback, 51 pages, York University Press, 1989

The early Bronze Age barrow at Little Ouseburn, due west of York was excavated in 1958. Pre-barrow occupation comprised settlement features, greenstone axe fragments, Beaker shards, and other farmer period flints. In a primary grave was a tree-trunk coffin surviving as dark residues, and small traces of an inhumed skeleton could be recognised. The is the detailed report of the findings with 21 figures, 17 plates and 3 tables. 11" x 9"

Only £2.99+p&p Published price £8, a saving of 60%

Communicating Archaeology - John Beavis, Alan Hunt (Editors)

Paperback, 120 pages, Bournemouth University School of Conservation Sciences, 1999

These papers on archaeology and education were given at a conference at Bournemouth University in 1995, held to honour Bill Putnam whose life has been spent in Extra-Mural and University teaching.

Only £6.00 +p&p Published price £14.95, a saving of over 55%

The Archaeology of Lancashire - edited by Richard Newman

Paperback, 212 pages, Department of Archaeology, Lancaster University, 1996

A comprehensive review of Lancashire's archaeology which brings together all the evidence for this region for the first time, some of it previously unpublished. Each paper discusses a specific period from the upper palaeolithic and Mesolithic until the industrial revolution. Under these broad headings the evidence is usefully summarised and topics discussed include past and present research, the evolution of the landscape and future directions for research. Contributors include David Shotter, Robert Middleton, Colin Haselgrove, Jason Wood and Richard Newman.

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Archaeology in the Avebury Area by Andrew B Powell, Michael J Allen and I Barnes

Paperback - 99 pages (1996)
Wessex Archaeological Report 8

The replacement of 4km of sewer pipeline in the Avebury landscape demonstrated the high potential of the area, not just for the ritual and mortuary monuments of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, but also for the archaeology of ther periods. This report combines the findings of the watching brief undertaken during the engineering works, with the results of earlier desk-based research, air photographic and geophysical surveys.

£6.95+p&p (RRP £12 - a saving of over 45%)

The Lockington Gold Hoard: An Early Bronze Age Barrow Cemetery at Lockington, Leicestershire edited by Gwilym Hughes

Paperback - 128 pages, Oxbow Books, 2000

This report details the results of excavations within an early Bronze Age barrow cemetery in 1994. The barrow provided a rare opportunity for examining in detail Bronze Age funerary practices and associated ritual activity in a lowland context in the English Midlands. In addition, a rich group of metalwork finds was discovered - two gold armlets and a copper dagger. The evidence at Lockington poses some interesting questions - why were there grazing animals in the palisaded enclosure immediately before the construction of the mound? and why was there no body with the deposit? The authors offer answers to these questions and discuss the barrow in a regional context.

£7.95+p&p (RRP £25 - a saving of over 65%)