The Celts: a modern history
REVIEW BY JODY JOY Many books have been written about the ancient Celts, whether from the standpoint of a shared identity across a connected Europe, or a more sceptical perspective, arguing for
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A Land Won from Waste: Scotland AD 400-1400
REVIEW BY SOPHIA CHAPPLE Richard Oram presents a thorough and digestible environmental history of medieval Scotland in his new book A Land Won from Waste. Covering AD 400-1400, this is one of
Disability in Ancient Egypt and Egyptology: All Our Yesterdays
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT This important new collection of essays explores what disability meant to the people living in the Nile Valley thousands of years ago, and the lived experience and reception
A Categorisation of Ancient Egyptian Watercraft, from Predynastic Petroglyphs to the Khufu Boats
REVIEW BY J PETER PHILLIPS This extremely detailed and complex work is exactly what it says on the cover, and supplements the author’s previous books, published by BAR in 2012 and 2022,
Chicago on the Nile: A Century of Work by the Epigraphic Survey of the University of Chicago
REVIEW BY ALAN L JEFFREYS Emily Teeter’s book, which accompanies a recent exhibition at the ISAC Museum (see ‘Exhibitions’ in AE 145), relates the story of the University of Chicago’s Epigraphic Survey
Yearning For Immortality: The European Invention of the Ancient Egyptian Afterlife
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE The goal of the afterlife – towards which so many wealthy ancient Egyptians apparently strove, and in the attainment of which so many objects and monuments were created
From Objects to Histories: Studies in Honour of John H Taylor
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW This monumental Festschrift, four years in preparation, celebrates John H Taylor’s distinguished career at the British Museum, both as a curator and a scholar. Aptly titled, the
New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT The histories, cultures, and archaeologies of ancient Nubia remain a source of much scholarly debate, and centring our research on the people of the ancient Nile Valley is
The Swash Channel Wreck: An Archaeological Investigation of a 17th-Century Armed Dutch Merchantman
REVIEW BY MARK BEATTIE-EDWARDS It was with some delight that I received an email to write this review, as I had literally only one hour before I purchased my own copy. Over
Archaeological Stones and their Macroscopical Identification
REVIEW BY ROB IXER ‘No provenance is better than wrong provenance’ should be tattooed on the forehead of anyone embarking on a career in lithic studies. Forgoing that, buying this book would
Rural Baths in Roman Britain: A colonisation of the senses
REVIEW BY JO DAY Imagining Roman baths conjures up scenes of mosaics and frescoes, perfumes, hot rooms and cold pools, and steamy air thick with watery sounds and chattering. These structures were
Boathouses of Britain
REVIEW BY KK Opening with a brutal account of fratricide between the sons of the pioneering physician who first described Down’s syndrome, this book about boathouses is unexpectedly gripping. The rest of
On the Edge, Above the Vale
REVIEW BY RP Cotswold Archaeology’s latest monograph (free to download at http://www.cotswoldarchaeology.co.uk/publication) covers excavations that took place ahead of the construction of the Collection Management Facility, Science, and Innovation Park at the
Life and Death in Roman Carlisle
REVIEW BY RP This volume compiles the findings of excavations carried out by Wardell Armstrong at Botchergate, a main street to the south-east of Carlisle’s city centre. There, works undertaken ahead of
Repast: The story of food
REVIEW BY CARLY JONES If there is one thing that unites the many, incredibly varied cultures that have inhabited the world throughout human history, it is that we all need to eat.
Ancient Maya Teeth: Dental modification, cosmology, and social identity in Mesoamerica
REVIEW BY JOSHUA T SCHNELL The decorated smiles of the ancient Maya, characterised by their carved, incised, and inlaid dental arches, have long fascinated those who have gazed on them, inspiring more
Landscapes of Death: Early Bronze Age tombs and mortuary rituals on the Oman Peninsula
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH The Oman Peninsula and the surrounding Gulf States have been the focus of archaeological research for at least 120 years. Although the region’s archaeological record extends as far
Saint Petersburg: sacrifice and redemption in the city that defied Hitler
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON St Petersburg has an immensely dark history. Built largely by slave labour on the orders of Peter the Great in the early 1700s, it has endured more than
Ring of Fire: a new global history of the outbreak of the First World War
REVIEW BY JONATHAN EATON In recent years, historians have increasingly sought to understand major conflicts from a genuinely global perspective. While this approach has perhaps always been synonymous with the Second World
Chain of Fire: campaigning in Egypt and the Sudan, 1882-1898
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER If, as a youngster, you enjoyed those wonderful films Khartoum, The Four Feathers and Young Winston, you were not alone. I sat as transfixed as the spear that