Frisians and their North Sea Neighbours: from the 5th century to the Viking age John Hines and Nelleke IJssennagger (eds) Boydell & Brewer, £75 ISBN 978-1783271795 Review by: Catherine Hills Early medieval Frisia had a complicated history. Broadly speaking, it occupied the coastal regions of what are now the Netherlands and north-west Germany. Close connections […]
Book Review
Review: Megadrought and Collapse
Megadrought and Collapse: from early agriculture to Angkor Harvey Weiss (ed.) Oxford University Press, £53 ISBN 978-0199329199 Review by: Kyle Harper In the study of the human past, the battle between those who believe in the primacy of environmental causes in the rise and fall of civilisations, those who believe in the pre-eminence of social […]
Review: The Atlas of Ancient Rome
The Atlas of Ancient Rome Andrea Carandini (ed.) Princeton University Press, £149 ISBN 978-0691163475 Review by: Lucia Marchini One of the great pleasures of a walk around the Eternal City is coming across the abundance of Roman remains that await around practically every corner, whether a seemingly out-of-place bucranium outside a church or a larger-than-life […]
Review: Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World
Infancy and Earliest Childhood in the Roman World Maureen Carroll Oxford University Press, £75 ISBN 978-0199687633 Review by: Matthew Symonds It is received wisdom that Roman parents did not see infants as people, and so were unmoved by the death of newborns, insulating them from the high infant-mortality rate. This argument is seemingly borne out […]
Review: Scribbling through History
Scribbling through History: graffiti, places, and people from antiquity to modernity Chloé Ragazzoli, Ömür Harmansah, Chiara Salvador, Elizabeth Frood (eds) Bloomsbury, £85 ISBN 978-1474288811 Review by: Lucia Marchini For thousands of years, people have been leaving their mark on their surroundings through informal but intentional inscriptions. Graffiti today are both revered and reviled; the practice is […]
Review: The Science of Roman History
The Science of Roman History: biology, climate, and the future of the past Walter Scheidel (ed.) Princeton University Press, £27 ISBN 978-0691162560 Review by: Hella Eckardt The study of the Roman past is often thought of as a conservative discipline, but this book demonstrates the enormous potential of historians and archaeologists engaging with new types […]
Review: Greece in the Ancient World
Greece in the Ancient World Jeremy McInerney Thames & Hudson, £35 ISBN 978-0500252260 Review by: Matthew Symonds The story of Greece from the Minoans to the arrival of the Romans is one of great powers rising and falling, trade networks flourishing and fading, and artistic highs set against the darker work of the arts of […]
Review: Rethinking Prehistoric Central Asia
Rethinking Prehistoric Central Asia: shepherds, farmers, and nomads Claudia Chang Routledge, £105 ISBN 978-1138737082 Review by: George Nash Until relatively recently, evidence for later prehistoric and protohistoric communities of Central Asia has been interpreted as representing a fragmented history, partly as a result of the geopolitics of the region (especially during the 20th century). From […]
Review: Materialising Roman Histories
Materialising Roman Histories Astrid Van Oyen and Martin Pitts (eds) Oxbow Books, £40 ISBN 978-1785706769 Review by: Matthew Fittock Your possessions can tell people a lot about who you are, but this only makes up a small part of what objects do and mean: all have hidden stories that have quietly shaped lives in ways that […]
Review: Archaeology of the Night
Archaeology of the Night: life after dark in the ancient world Nancy Gonlin and April Nowell (eds) University Press of Colorado, $75 ISBN 978-1607326779 Review by: Lucia Marchini With easy access in modern homes to instant illumination and streetlights a common feature in the outside world, it can be difficult to relate to how people […]
Review: China – visions through the ages
China: visions through the ages Lisa C Niziolek, Deborah A Bekken, and Gary M Feinman (eds) University of Chicago Press, $45 ISBN 978-0226385372 People across China’s vast and diverse landscape have long been creating works in a range of materials, such as bronze, jade, porcelain, and paint, and the results of their handiwork can be […]
Byzantine Anatolia
The Archaeology of Byzantine Anatolia Edited by Philipp Niewohner Oxford University Press, £94 ISBN 978-0190610463 Review by: Andrew Selkirk Just what happened in the Eastern Roman Empire in the period following the fall of Rome? We tend to think that the story is that of Constantinople, holding out alone against the Arab onslaught, but that […]
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