REVIEW BY LISA BRIGGS It has been 15 years since A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor was first published and introduced readers to a novel method of breaking down world history into bite-sized, easily digestible…
REVIEW BY PAULINE RIPAT Roman legends stressed the importance of babies in the foundation of Rome and its destiny to dominate. The unlikely birth of the twins Romulus and Remus from a Vestal Virgin, and their even more improbable survival…
REVIEW BY ROBIN OSBORNE Trade in Greek pottery long attracted little interest. Finley’s massively influential The Ancient Economy (1973) discouraged both the idea that archaeological data might have anything to add to study of the ancient economy and the idea…
REVIEW BY TAYLOR DOWNING General The Lord Dannatt, once Chief of the General Staff, has teamed up with military historian Robert Lyman to provide a fascinating new take on the Korean War of 1950 to 1953. Their book has three…
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD Andrew Lambert has earned a reputation as the leading naval historian of his generation with a series of books on Nelson, the Anglo-American War of 1812-1814, and the Crimean War. In 2018, his Seapower States chronicled…
REVIEW BY MARC DeSANTIS Alexander the Great of Macedonia is one of the best-known figures of ancient history. Comparatively large amounts of written material concerning his short but extraordinarily eventful life have survived from ancient times. This is a boon…
REVIEW BY JEFFREY JAMES King Harald III of Norway’s sobriquet Hardrada conjures up an image of a resolute, ruthless, no-nonsense leader, yet may in fact be a corruption of the Norse word harfagri, meaning ‘the fine or fair haired’. Nevertheless,…
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
REVIEW BY KK With more than 1,500 castles – a term that Andrew Powell-Thomas uses to cover everything from medieval military fortifications and tower houses to crenellated mansions and great estates – still standing in Scotland today, no book can…
REVIEW BY ADAM KLUPS Few church reordering projects are lucky enough to be celebrated with a book, but this publication by archaeologist Chiz Harward is a compelling exception. Commissioned to oversee archaeological work during the church’s major 2016-2021 reordering –…
REVIEW BY HEATHER BEETON This report is a result of 11 seasons of extensive excavations of the multiperiod site at Mellor hilltop in Stockport, carried out by University of Manchester Archaeological Unit. Occupation started in the Mesolithic and continued in…
REVIEW BY RICHARD BRADLEY Archaeologists study memories in prehistory and help to create them in the present. Ancient people must have had a sense of the past, just as we do today. That is why older monuments were visited and…
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 regional diversity and more complicated histories. This book…
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 three in a wider series spanning from AD…
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 of disability within the field of Egyptology over…
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, which categorise watercraft of the Old, Middle, and…
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 expedition to Egypt, and the team’s efforts to…
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 – is fundamental to our idea of ‘ancient…
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 volume captures John’s remarkable dual expertise: his keen…
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 especially important at this time of political turmoil…
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 the last five years I have been working…
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 be a useful long-term alternative. This quintessential reference/lab…
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 so much more than just a place to…
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 the publication is not nearly so dramatic, but…
REVIEW BY RP Cotswold Archaeology’s latest monograph (free to download at ) covers excavations that took place ahead of the construction of the Collection Management Facility, Science, and Innovation Park at the former site of RAF Wroughton between 2018 and…
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 the construction of a new municipal building revealed…
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. Catching, cultivating, cooking, and consuming food have been…
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 than a century of scholarly research. Vera Tiesler…
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 back as the Middle Palaeolithic – including evidence…
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film releases.
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 its fair share of assassination, revolution, flooding, and…
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 War, where the shape of the conflict was…
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 skewered General Gordon, as the bayonets that shimmered…
REVIEW BY MARK DeSANTIS The Battle of Midway in early June 1942 is arguably the most significant naval encounter of the Second World War, and easily one of the most notable battles in all history. The three-day fight in the…
REVIEW BY RACHEL BALLANTYNE Fabulously comprehensive and systematic, this is primarily a resource assessment of later prehistoric structural footprints for homes – places of social reproduction, craft activities, food storage and consumption. Of note are the many composite illustrations that…
REVIEW BY REBECCA JONES This is not a traditional archaeology or history book. It defies conventional modern categorisation, taking its inspiration from the writings of antiquarian travellers, such as Jessie Mothersole. Indeed, the author is an expert in antiquarians, and…