Monographs

Excavation Reports

Grounding Knowledge/Walking Land
Grounding Knowledge/Walking Land: Archaeological Research and Ethno-historical Identity in Central Nepal by Christopher Evans, with Judith Pettigrew, Yarjung Kromchain Tamu and Mark Turin

Tracking knowledge down to ground – concerned with trail-based archaeology, journeys and histories, this is a volume of both ‘firsts’ and ‘thick context’. At face-value it documents almost a decade of groundbreaking investigations within the Annapurna highlands of Nepal. Including survey recording of fort and settlement sites, from the outset the project’s focus was the extraordinary ruins of Kohla Sombre – Kohla, The Three Villages – the ancestral settlement of the Tami-mai (Gurung) community, who hosted and instigated the fieldwork programme.

Ultimately, only a single season’s excavation was conducted, before the project was cut short by the political insurgency within the country. It concluded with holding a great shamans’ meeting in Pokhara in 2002, at which their historical ‘oral texts’ were presented. Narrating the long migration of the Tamu-mai into the region and down from a distant north, the present volume includes the full translation of one of these oral epics, the Lemako Roh Pye.

The project represents a unique collaboration between archaeologists, anthropologists and a shaman. Including interviews with upland inhabitants, the volume encompasses the diverse voices of both its immediate participants and the local community. Fulsome in its presentation of the archaeological data and rich in ethnographic source-material, not only is this book crucial for Himalayan culture studies generally, but also relevant for any concerned with the construction and context of the past in the present, and the active forging of ethno-historical identities.

Aside from widely publishing on the history of archaeology, Christopher Evans has, since 1990, been Executive Director of the University’s Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Having directed local fieldwork campaigns for more than 25 years, he has also been responsible for other collaborative projects in Nepal, China and, most recently, Cape Verde.

Hardback | £40/US$80 | ISBN-13: 978-1-902937-50-2 | 223pp. | 116 ills. | 12 tables | March 2009

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Prehistoric Landscape Development and Human Impact in the Upper Allen Valley, Cranborne Chase, Dorset
Prehistoric Landscape Development and Human Impact in the Upper Allen Valley, Cranborne Chase, Dorset

edited by Charles French and Helen Lewis
The results of palaeo-evironmental and archaeological investigations in the Upper Allen Valley, Cranborne Chase, Dorset, 1998-2003 led by Charles French (Cambridge) and Helen Lewis (Dublin) challenge some long standing assumptions about the palaeoecology of the chalk, questioning the ubiquity of climax woodland and brown forest soils associated with it, the idea of extensive prehistoric soil erosion and the widely held model of quite dramatic Middle Bronze Age landscape change. A programme of valley-wide geoarchaeological survey and palynological analyses of the relict palaeo-channel system was conducted, along with sample investigations and open area excavations of a variety of prehistoric sites in this part of Cranborne Chase. New palynological, molluscan and soil micromorphological data suggest that there were different trajectories of clearance and landscape exploitation in the northern and southern parts of the study area over very short distances. GIS modelling techniques have been used to interrogate and visualise some of this new data which has provided possible independent corroboration.
Hardback | ISBN 978-1-902937-47-2 | £60/US$120 | xxiv + 412 pp. | 189 ills. | 96 tables | December 2007
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Keros, Dhaskalio Kavos: The Investigations of 1987-88
Keros, Dhaskalio Kavos: The Investigations of 1987-88

Edited by Colin Renfrew, Christos Doumas, Lila Marangou and Giorgos Gavalas

The site of Dhaskalio Kavos, on the remote Cycladic island of Keros, was extensively looted in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Investigations starting in1963 then revealed large quantities of fractured marble bowls, broken marble figures and smashed pottery of the Early Cycladic period from around 2500 BC. This report of the subsequent survey and rescue excavations of 1987-88 reveals the extraordinary richness of the site, now confirmed as one of the most prolific in Èlite goods of the entire Aegean early bronze age. Was it an unprecedentedly rich Early Cycladic cemetery, recently wrecked by looters? Or was the damage deliberately produced during early bronze age times in some procedure of ritual breakage and ceremonial deposition? Here the survey of the site and the rescue excavations undertaken within the looted area are documented in detail, with a full account of the finds. Alternative explanations for this extraordinary deposit are explored. What has been termed 'the Keros Enigma', in the light of the finds at the site, can now be reconsidered with the full documentation which this volume offers.

Hardback | £69/US$140 | ISBN 978-1-902937-43-4 | 540 pp. | 308 b/w ills. | 91 tables | 2008
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Testing the Hinterland: The work of the Boeotia Survey (1989-1991) in the Southern Approaches to the City of Thespiai
Testing the Hinterland: The work of the Boeotia Survey (1989-1991) in the Southern Approaches to the City of Thespiai

edited by John Bintliff, Phil Howard and Anthony Snodgrass
The Boeotia Survey in Greece is widely recognised as a milestone in Mediterranean landscape archaeology in the sophistication and rigour of its methodologies, and in the scale of the 25-year investigation. This first volume of the project's publication deals with the landscape that formed part of the territory of the ancient city of Thespiai. This landscape acted as the laboratory in which the project refined its methodology: the entire territory was traversed systematically by survey teams, and artefacts were collected not only from every archaeological site located but also as 'off-site' material indicative of land use practices such as manuring. The methodology made possible the construction of detailed period and density maps of rural activity, throwing unprecedented light on the interaction of the city with its hinterland particularly in its period of maximum size between the 5th century BC and the 6th century AD, as well as providing an exemplar for Mediterranean landscape archaeology more generally.
Hardback | £65/US$ 130 | ISBN 978-1-902937-37-3 | xviii + 320 pp. | 457 b/w ills, 50 col. ills. | CD | 2007
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Excavations at Kilise Tepe, 1994-98
Excavations at Kilise Tepe, 1994-98: From Bronze Age to Byzantine in western Cilicia

Edited by N.J. Postgate & D. Thomas

These two volumes report on five season's excavation and four millennia of occupation at Kilise Tepe, from the Early Bronze Age through the rise and fall of the Hittite Empire and into the Byzantine era when the mound was crowned by a substantial church. The site takes its importance from its position guarding the Göksu Valley, one of the two main routes from the interior of Anatolia to the Mediterranean opposite Cyprus, so that it gives a record of relations between the interior and the seaboard. Of particular interest are the sequence from the Hittite Empire through the end of the Bronze Age and into the classical world, and the Byzantine levels associated with the church. The multi-authored report gives a full account of the stratigraphy and architecture, the ceramics and other artefacts, and various environmental studies.

Hardback | £95/US$190 | ISBN 978-1-902937-40-3 (2 vol. set) | Vol. 1: xxii+620 pp. | Vol 2: xvi+244 pp. | 527 figs. (58 colour) | 43 tables + CD | November 2007
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Çatalhöyük Perspectives: Themes from the 1995-99 Seasons
Changing Materialities at Çatalhöyük: Reports from the 1995-99 Seasons

edited by Ian Hodder
Volume 5 deals with aspects of the material culture excavated in the 1995-99 period. In particular it discusses the changing materiality of life at the site over its 1100 years of occupation. It includes a discussion of ceramics and other fired clay material, chipped stone, groundstone, worked bone and basketry. As well as looking at typological and comparative issues in relation to these materials, the chapters explore themes such as the specialisation and scale of production, the engagement in systems of exchange, and consumption, use and deposition. A central question concerns change through time, and the degree and speed of this change. The occupants of the site increasingly get caught up in relations with material objects that start to act back upon them.
Hardback | Price £59/US $120 | ISBN 978-1-902937-28-1 | xviii + 395 pp. | 275 ills, 214 tables + CD 2005
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Inhabiting Çatalhöyük
Inhabiting Çatalhöyük

by members of the Çatalhöyük teams, edited by Ian Hodder
Volume 4 deals with various aspects of the habitation of Çatalhöyük. Part A embarks on a discussion of the relationship between the site and its environment, using a wide range of evidence from faunal and charred archaeobotanical remains. Part B looks at evidence from human remains which inform us about diet and lifestyle, as well as wider issues of population dynamics and social structure, including a consideration of population size. Part C looks at the sediments at Çatalhöyük, exploring ways in which houses and open spaces in the settlement were lived in.
Hardback | £60/US$125 | ISBN 978-1-902937-22-9 | xviii+446 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 286 ills. | 160 tables | CD | 2005
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Dwelling Among the Monuments
Dwelling Among the Monuments

edited by Colin Richards
This book provides an engrossing account of the lives of the inhabitants of the village of Barnhouse, a late Neolithic settlement complex in Orkney. The excavation of Barnhouse between 1986 and 1993 constitutes the largest investigation of a Neolithic settlement in northern Britain since the 1920s. It consequently provides an ideal opportunity to reconsider architectural representation, the social construction of identity, and social and ritual practices within a late Neolithic community.
Hardback | £40/US$80 | ISBN 978-1-902937-18-2 | xxii+397 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 399 ills. | 29 tables | 2005
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Excavations at Tell Brak, vol 4
Excavations at Tell Brak, vol 4

edited by Roger Matthews
Tell Brak in Syria is one of the largest and most important multi-period sites in northern Mesopotamia. Excavations in 1994 - 1996 cast new light on everyday life at the settlement through several phases of occupation from the early 4th millennium BC to the 2nd millennium BC. Volume 4 in the Tell Brak Monograph series provides an account of the architecture, artefacts, and environmental evidence, supported by a program of radiocarbon dating. The results emphasize the indigenous nature of cultural development in Upper Mesopotamia during these millennia.
Hardback | £75/US$135 | ISBN 978-1-902937-16-8 | xviii+446 pp. | 286 x 220 mm | 333 ills. | 70 tables | 2003
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Excavations at Tell Brak - Vol. 2: Nagar in the Third Millennium BC
Excavations at Tell Brak - Vol. 2: Nagar in the Third Millennium BC

edited by David Oates, Joan Oates & Helen McDonald
Tell Brak, ancient Nagar, was one of the most important cities in northern Mesopotamia in the third millennium BC and a focus of long-distance trade. It was also, for about a century, a provincial capital of the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon of Agade. The major Akkadian buildings at Tell Brak are the first well-preserved examples to be discovered at any site, and include a great ceremonial complex and a unique caravanserai that housed the donkey caravans bringing metals from Anatolia. During the ritual closure of these buildings beautiful silver jewellery was deposited, along with numerous copper/bronze tools and some of the caravan donkeys themselves.
Hardback | £95/US$150 | ISBN 978-0-951942-09-3 | xxxii+644 pp. | 493 ills. | 60 tables | 2001
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Hunter-gatherer landscape archaeology
Hunter-gatherer landscape archaeology: The Southern Hebrides Mesolithic Project 1988-98

edited by Steven Mithen
The definitive publication of the ten year Southern Hebrides Mesolithic Project. The project aimed to document Mesolithic settlement on the islands of Islay and Colonsay and, in intepreting it, to throw light on a number of major issues: the colonisation of Scotland following the last Ice Age; the nature of early postglacial settlement patterns; the transition to Neolithic and farming communities.
Hardback | £88/US$150 | ISBN 978-1-902937-12-0 | 2 Vols | 286 x 220 mm | xviii+xiv+652pp | 566 ills. | 242 tables | 2000
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Towards reflexive method in archaeology
Towards reflexive method in archaeology: the example at Çatalhöyük

edited by Ian Hodder and team members
In the early 1990s the University of Cambridge reopened excavations at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey, abandoned since the 1960s. In this volume, Ian Hodder explains his vision of archaeological excavation, where careful examination of context and an awareness of human bias allows researchers exciting new insights into prehistoric cognition. The aim of the volume is to discuss some of the reflexive or postprocessual methods that have been introduced at the site in the work there since 1993. These methods involve reflexivity, interactivity, multivocality and contextuality or relationality.
Hardback | £45/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-02-1 | xvi+238 pp. | 71 ills. | 10 tables | 2000
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Excavations at Tell Brak, vol 1
Excavations at Tell Brak, vol 1

edited by David Oates, Joan Oates & Helen McDonald
This is the first of four volumes on the excavations at Tell Brak in northeast Syria, ancient Nagar/Nawar, one of the largest urban sites in northern Mesopotamia. Here the second-millennium BC material is published in full, including a detailed account of the monumental Palace and Temple of Mitanni date (Late Bronze Age) and a sequence of second-millennium domestic occupation dating from c. 1700--1200 BC. This is the most extensive and best-dated Mitanni material yet known. Of especial interest is unique evidence from Palace workrooms for craft activities involving materials such as glass, iron, copper, bronze and ivory. Official cuneiform records add to our historical knowledge of this important but archaeologically little-known kingdom.
Hardback | £45/US$80 | ISBN 978-0-951942-05-5 | 296 pp. | 178 ills. | 1998
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Star Carr in Context
Star Carr in Context

edited by Paul Mellars and Petra Dark
A summary of findings from the most recent archaeological and palaeoecological investigations at the Early Mesolithic occupation site. The new programme of research, intended to shed further light on problematic issues such as the exact age, duration, and pattern of occupation, and the precise nature of the birch brushwood platform, called for the use of scientifically more advanced techniques not before available.
Hardback | £40/US$70 | ISBN 978-0-951942-04-8 | 250 pp. | 1998
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Klithi: Palaeolithic Settlement and Quaternary Landscapes in Northwest Greece
Klithi: Palaeolithic Settlement and Quaternary Landscapes in Northwest Greece

edited by Geoff Bailey
The Epirus region of northwestern Greece has witnessed more dramatic changes of physical landscape than almost any other part of Europe. Tectonic activity has shaped a complex and dynamic topography, supplemented by the impact of a local ice sheet formed during the Glacial Maximum, and dramatic episodes of erosion triggered by changes of climate, vegetation and land-use. These two volumes set out the history of Palaeolithic occupation over the past 100,000 years, bringing together the full range of studies carried out between 1981 and 1993 as part of the Klithi Project.
Hardback | £70/US$70 | ISBN 978-0-951942-02-4 | 2 vols | Vol 1 - xx+316 pp. | 187 ills. | 121 tables | Vol 2 - xvi+380 pp. | 231 ills. | 64 tables | 1997
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On the Surface: Çatalhöyük 1993-95
On the Surface: Çatalhöyük 1993-95

edited by Ian Hodder
After the excitement of its discovery and excavations in the early 1960s, the world-important site of Çatalhöyük has remained dormant for 30 years. This volume describes the first phase of renewed archaeological research at the site. It reports on the work that has taken place on the surfaces of the east and west mounds and in the surrounding regions. It also discusses the material from the 1960s excavation in museums, which has been re-examined. The result is that new perspectives can be offered on the internal organization and symbolism of a site which is central to our understanding of the earliest development of complex societies.
Hardback | £40/US$70 | ISBN 978-0-951942-03-1 | 368 pp | 206 ills. | 63 tables | 1997
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Çatalhöyük Perspectives: Themes from the 1995-99 Seasons
Çatalhöyük Perspectives: Themes from the 1995-99 Seasons

edited by Ian Hodder
This volume, number six in the Çatalhöyük Research Project series, draws on material from Volumes 3 to 5 to deal with broad themes. Data from architecture and excavation contexts are linked into broader discussion of topics such as seasonality, art and social memory. Rather than assuming that the work of the project is finished once the basic excavation and laboratory results have been presented in Volumes 3 to 5, it has been thought important to present more synthetic accounts that result from the high degree of integration and collaboration which the project has strived for at all stages. In this synthetic volume we most clearly describe the stories we have been telling ourselves during the data recovery/interpretation process. This volume thus provides a contextualisation of the work carried out in Volumes 3 to 5; it records the framework of thought within which the data were collected and studied, but it is also the result of the interpretation that occurred in the interaction with data.
Hardback | £39 & US $78.00 | ISBN 978-1-902937-29-8 | ix + 245 pp. | 90 ills | 2005
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Marshland Communities
Marshland Communities and Cultural Landscape: The Haddenham Project Volume II

edited by Christopher Evans and Ian Hodder
Set in the context of this project's innovative landscape surveys, four extraordinary sites excavated at Haddenham, north of Cambridge chart the transformation of Neolithic woodland to Romano-British marshland, providing unrivalled insights into death and ritual in a changing prehistoric environment. Volume II moves on to later periods, and reveals how Iron Age and Romano-British communities adapted to the wetland environment that had now become established.
Hardback | £35/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-32-8 | 344 pp | 291 ills | 155 tables | 2006
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A Woodland Archaeology
A Woodland Archaeology: The Haddenham Project Volume I

edited by Christopher Evans and Ian Hodder
Set in the context of this project's innovative landscape surveys, four extraordinary sites excavated at Haddenham, north of Cambridge chart the transformation of Neolithic woodland to Romano-British marshland, providing unrivalled insights into death and ritual in a changing prehistoric environment. The highlight of Volume I is the internationally renowned Foulmire Fen long barrow, with its preserved timber burial chamber and façade. The massive individual timbers allow detailed study of Neolithic wood technology and the direct examination of a structure that usually survives only as a pattern of post holes.
Hardback | £35/US$70 | ISBN 978-1-902937-31-1 | 262 pp. | 190 ills | 103 tables | 2006
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Excavating Çatalhöyük: South, North and KOPAL Area Reports from the 1995-99 Seasons
Excavating Çatalhöyük: South, North and KOPAL Area Reports from the 1995-99 Seasons by Members of Çatalhöyük Project (Çatalhöyük Research Project vol. 3)

edited by Ian Hodder
Ian Hodder's campaigns of excavation at the world-famous Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük are one of the largest, most complex, and most exciting archaeological field projects in the world and recognized as agenda-setting not only in terms of our understanding of early farming communities in the Near East, particularly the central role religion played in their daily lives, but also in terms of the interaction between theory and practice in the trenches and on-site laboratories. This volume presents the results of excavation in three areas of the site, known as South, North, and KOPAL, excavated between 1995 and 1999. The book describes aspects of the excavation, recording and sampling methodologies that are necessary for an understanding of the results presented plus it incorporates interpretive discussion. It brings in data from the study of animal bones, lithics, ceramics, micromorphology and the full suite of analyses conducted on the material. These accounts are interspersed with individual specialists' commentaries and conclusions, that mimic the process of collaborative interpretation that takes place during excavation and post-excavation. The 'objective descriptions' of the archaeology are thus exposed as interpretations involving a balancing of a variety of different types of data and scholarly input. Another thought-provoking volume in the Çatalhöyük excavation series which will be read with profit by any archaeologist engaged in working at theory in practice in the field.
Hardback | £69/US$138 | ISBN 978-1-902937-27-4 | 688p. | 32 ills | 50 tables | CD | 2006
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