Archaeology titles - reviews & further information

Arthurian Sites in the West

A completely new revised and enlarged edition of this classic survey of monuments in South-West England associated with the stories of King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table: the castle of Tintagel, the great hill-fort of Cadbury in south Somerset, the ruined abbey at Glastonbury and Castle Dore in south Cornwall—the setting for one of the greatest European love-stories of all time, that of Tristan and Isolde.  In each case the archaeological evidence is summarised, and linked with relevant Arthurian literature.  The book includes maps, plans, photographs and suggestions for further reading; it will be valuable to specialists as well as accessible to the general reader.

 Author:  M.J. Swanton is Professor of Medieval Studies at the University of Exeter.

Domestic Wooden Artefacts

"The book will become a standard of reference for wooden artefacts in western Europe."
Newswarp

"This is a fascinating book which has implications far beyond woodworking itself into the structure of the society that produces the woodworking."
  Current Archaeology

"...a book which should most certainly be on the shelves of every museum and university library and should be one of the starting points for anyone proposing to study domestic wares and traditional crafts. The book makes a significant contribution to our knowledge of this relatively neglected field." Folk Life

Hen Domen, Montgomery A timber castle on the English-Welsh Border: A Final Report  

"This is a very readable excavation report with a strong touch of humanity. As well as the main contributors, the local community played its part, and continues to do so with the display of the site model and exhibits in 'The Bell', the visitor centre of the Montgomery Civic Society. The spirit of the excavation and its team pervades the text, and is recognised by the photographs of camp life among the final pages.’"
Archaeological Journal, Vol. 158, July 2001

"The authors deserve our thanks for seeing this well-produced report to publication, as indeed does Exeter University Press for publishing it. It is an expensive volume compared to other excavation reports published recently as monographs, but it is a book that should be on the shelves of anyone interested in the history of the Welsh borderland, let alone students of castle history."
Archaeology in Wales, Vol. 40, 2001

"This is a book I would like to see in the hands of anyone involved in archaeological excavation, but most especially students approaching the trenches for the first time, shiny trowel at the ready. This is what excavation should be about: digging and recording to the highest standards, intellectual rigour and transparency, an appreciation that a complex site can only begin to be understood within its landscape by constantly revisiting it, and sheer dedication. In fact, it is the antithesis of much that passes for excavation today . . . As well as being important, it is attractively and well produced – the quality of the drawings and photographs, and their integration with each other and the text is exemplary – with a charm and personality entirely missing from so many reports . . . When the history of medieval archaeology is written, this site and its excavations will feature prominently."
Medieval Archaeology, Vol. 45, 2001

"Two features lift this above the usual range of excavation reports – the reconstruction drawings of the phases of the castle by Peter Scholefield, which are already classics, and the “photographic memoir” at the end. We all have collections of informal excavation photographs never intended for publication, but it takes a Philip Barker to realize that these were already an historical document in their own right, recording what that threatened, and well nigh extinct species, a large-scale volunteer-based excavation, looked and felt like to those taking part."
Antiquaries Journal, Vol 81

Its principal contents are the buildings whose foundations were recovered in the bailey and on the motte, the artefactual and environmental evidence and the castle's medieval landscape context. The book is profusely illustrated with drawings and photographs, including artist's reconstructions of the evolution of the site.

• Evidence from a site common in the Middle Ages but of which there have been few detailed explorations
• Profusely illustrated with drawings and photographs
• Contains structural, artefactual, environmental and documentary evidence

Authors: Robert Higham is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Exeter. Philip Barker was formerly Reader in British Archaeology, University of Birmingham. Both authors have directed a number of excavations and published several books; they are co-authors of Timber Castles (Batsford, 1992).

"All told, this a report that maintains the standard of an exemplary excavation. It is a stimulating and enjoyable read, and a fitting tribute to Philip Barker, whose enthusiasm, integrity and penetrating mind inspired so many of us who knew him."
Antiquity, Sept 2001

"The authors express the hope that they have made a solid contribution to the study of castles and also to medieval archaeology in general. There can be little doubt that this is indeed the case and, given the current state of funding for research excavation, Hen Domen will remain our most detailed example of the development of a motte and bailey castle for many years to come . . . In a series of highly readable, genuinely reflective and well illustrated chapters the development of the castle is brought to life in a discussion that is happily free of unnecessary jargon . . . a readable, reflective and well-illustrated piece of work that will stand the test of time."
Landscape History, 2001

Landscape and Settlement in Britain AD400-1066

"A good introduction to current debates, research preoccupations and methodological approaches, as well as giving the specialist much food for thought."
Landscape History

This book examines recent views on the emerging settlement patterns of early medieval Britain and their relation to land use, drawing on both archaeological and documentary sources.

Simon Esmonde Cleary takes the study from the later Romano-British into the post-Roman period; Christopher Holdsworth examines the re-emergence of Christianity in sixth-century England, the location of minsters and their role in the economy. The problematic theme of continuity or dislocation recurs in a number of chapters and is closely investigated by Peter Rose and Ann Preston Jones in their chapter on Cornwall, a region marginal to the main thrust of Anglo-Saxon cultural influence. Ethnicity as a factor for change is challenged and Colleen Batey, looking at Northern Britain, finds that archaeology fails to identify with any degree of certainty the specific Scandinavian house type in the uplands. Della Hooke presents a more general summary of the period across England, noting the evidence for the emerging landscape regions which were characterized by particular settlement types and field systems and, in a case study of the Failand ridge in North Somerset, James Bond sets the evidence within a much broader time scale, revealing the gaps which still caracterize our knowledge of the early medieval period.

Readership: Archaeologists, historians and historical geographers. Undergraduate and postgraduate students on early medieval courses.

DELLA HOOKE is part-time Senior Lecturer in Historical Geography and Landscape Conservation at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, after many years as a Research Fellow in the University of Birmingham. SIMON BURNELL taught early medieval archaeology in the University of Exeter from 1990 to 1992, and has since taught at the universities of Berne and Zurich. He works as a freelance consultant and is based in Suffolk.

Roman Finds from Exeter

Exeter, fortress of the Second Augustan Legion and subsequently the capital of the civitas Dumnoniorum, played an important part in the history of Roman Britain. This comprehensive study of finds from Exeter throws new light on the economy of south-west England and its foreign trade in Roman times. There are extensive type-series of Roman pottery found in the South West, based not only on first-hand study of material from Exeter but also from throughout the region, and detailed catalogues of the many imports by K. Greene, K.Hartley, V. Rigby, V. Swan and others. Finds apart from pottery include Roman coins (R. Reece and N. Shiel) and small finds (L. Allason-Jones); the many alleged finds of Byzantine and other Eastern Mediterranean coins are shown to be spurious by G. Boon.

Roman Frontier Studies

Roman Frontier Studies presents one hundred of the papers given at the Fifteenth International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies.  First published in 1991, it has been out of print since 1995.  This new edition is published to satisfy continuing demand for the volume.

Geographically the material ranges throughout the frontier regions of the Roman Empire from Britain to the Caucasus, the Low Countries to Upper Egypt, Spain to Jordan.  The first section deals with individual frontier regions, fort and fortress sites, army units and related military matters and includes overall surveys of significant work carried out in Britain and Germany in the 1980s.  The second section explores three more general themes: the relations between “Romans” and “natives” on the peripheral areas of the Empire, the realities of life in a frontier region, and the problems peculiar to desert frontiers. 

"This handsome volume contains no fewer than a hundred papers, divided into regional studies from the various frontier provinces of the Roman Empire . . ."  
British Archaeological News

‘Cet ouvrage volumineux, très richement et soigneusement illustré . . .’  
L’Antiquité Classique  

• New edition published to satisfy continuing demand

• Essential reading for those interested in the history and archaeology of the Roman provinces

• Profusely illustrated with halftones, plans and maps

Market:  Archaeologists and historians of Roman studies, frontier studies.  Military historians. 

Editors: Valerie Maxfield is Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Exeter.  Michael Dobson is Director of Humanities Computing and Director of Studies for Information Technology at the University of Exeter. 

The Saxon Shore

This volume presents a summary of the latest state of knowledge of each of the ten forts that originally girdled the south-eastern corner of England from Brancaster on the Wash to Portchester on Portsmouth Harbour.

Timber Castles

Reissue of a book first published by Batsford in 1992 and long out of print, this is the standard work on the subject.  With a new Foreword by Robert Higham, and with improved quality of reproduction of some of the illustrations.

Some of the greatest medieval castles survive only as earthworks and in pictures and written accounts  . . . because they were made of timber.  Robert Higham and Philip Barker, who excavated in detail the timber castle at Hen Domen in Wales, have brought together evidence of all kinds to produce the first comprehensive survey of this neglected and little-known type of fortification.

From the authors’ 1992 Preface: “The purpose of this book is to restore timber castles to their rightful place in the history of fortification; to show that they were not temporary versions of stone castles, but were formidable strongholds which dominated their surrounding landscapes, sometimes for centuries.”

• Reissue of a much sought-after text which is rarely available on the second-hand market

• Includes examples from all over Europe, as well as parallels from further afield and a gazetteer with details of published excavated sites in Great Britain and Ireland

• The standard work on the subject, useful for students and professionals

• There is no other book on the subject in English

Market: Archaeologists.  Historians.  Landscape historians.  Students of archaeology and medieval history, and landscape studies, both undergraduate and adult education.  The serious amateur enthusiast of castle studies.  Scholars of medieval studies.  Academic libraries. 

Authors: Robert Higham was formerly Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Exeter.  The late Philip Barker was formerly Reader in British Archaeology, University of Birmingham.  Both authors directed a number of excavations and published several books; they are co-authors of Hen Domen, Montgomery: A timber castle on the English-Welsh Border: A Final Report (also published by UEP, 2000), the fullest examination of this type of medieval castle.

Contents

List of illustrations

Preface to 1992 edition

Preface to new edition

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Chapter One          Timber castles: their study and background

Chapter Two          Origins of timber castles in the British Isles

Chapter Three        Origins of timber castles in Europe

Chapter Four          The documentary contribution

Chapter Five          The pictorial evidence

Chapter Six             Stone and timber

Chapter Seven        The earthworks of timber castles

Chapter Eight         The structures of timber castles: the excavated evidence and its interpretation

Chapter Nine          Hen Domen, Montgomery: a case-study

Chapter Ten           Epilogue

Chapter Eleven      Gazetteer of excavations in Great Britain and Ireland

Appendices:

            A: Timber castle vocabulary

            B: Castel

Notes

Further reading

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