The Institute of Archaeology produces two well-established series of books: the General Series (series editor Ruth Whitehouse) and the Critical Cultural Heritage sub-series (series editor Beverley Butler). These have been published since December 2015 by Routledge, a branch of Taylor & Francis.
One new book in the Critical Cultural Heritage sub-series will be published in December 2017. Another refereed manuscript is being revised, six are scheduled for refereeing within the next few months and three new proposals will be submitted to the Institute’s Publications Committee meeting in October 2017.
Critical Cultural Heritage series
Paul Harrison. 2018. Profane Egyptologists. The Modern Revival of Ancient Egyptian Religion
The practice of ancient Egyptian religion did not cease with the end of pharaonic culture and the rise of Christianity: an organised reconstruction and revival of the authentic practice of Egyptian, or Kemetic religion, employing ancient material and academic resources, has been growing for nearly three-decades, almost undocumented. The existence of competing visions of Egypt questions the position of Egyptology as a gatekeeper of Egypt’s past. Profane Egyptologists marks the first in-depth study of the now-global phenomenon of Kemeticism. It highlights key players in their own words, utilising extensive interviews, revealing a continuum of beliefs and practices spanning eight years of community growth.
Many other books have been published by Institute staff between 2016 and 2017. Some of these are featured below
Tony Bennett, Fiona Cameron, Nélia Dias, Ben Dibley, Rodney Harrision, Ira Jacknis & Conal McCarthy. 2017. Collecting, Ordering, Governing: Anthropology, Museums and Liberal Government. Duke University Press
The coauthors of this innovative theoretical work explore the relationships among anthropological fieldwork, museum collecting and display, and social governance in the early twentieth century in Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, and the United States. With case studies ranging from the Musée de l’Homme’s 1930s fieldwork missions in French Indo-China to the influence of Franz Boas’s culture concept on the development of American museums, the authors illuminate recent debates about postwar forms of multicultural governance, cultural conceptions of difference, and postcolonial policy and practice in museums.
Giles Dawkes & Martin Bates (in press). Between Thames and Medway, Archaeological Excavations on the Hoo Peninsula and its Environs. SpoilHeap Monograph 13, SpoilHeap Publications
This monograph discusses excavations by Archaeology South-East (1999-2010) in Kent on the Hoo peninsula, where archaeological investigation at the former Damhead Creek power station and on the Isle of Grain–Shorne gas transmission pipeline, as well as at the A2 Activity Park, south of Gravesend, have afforded a unique opportunity to reappraise the local archaeology. The volume presents the Pleistocene and Holocene evolution of the area; Mesolithic and Neolithic activity; Bronze Age ritual, occupation, agriculture, salt-production and funerary evidence; Iron Age agriculture and occupation; Roman agriculture, occupation and pottery production; Anglo-Saxon occupation, and a First World War airship base.
Georgina Herrman. 2017. Ancient Ivory: Masterpieces of the Assyrian Empire. Thames & Hudson
During the early first millennium BC, ‘the age of Ivory’, thousands of carved ivories found their way to the Syrian capital city of Kathy or modern Nimrud in northern Iraq, the majority arriving as gifts, tribute or booty gathered by the Syrian kings from the small neighbouring States of the ancient Middle Eastern world. The ivories were first discovered in the mid-19th century but it was not until the mid-20th century that the extent of the treasure was realised. In recent years, however, many have been destroyed or remain at risk following the invasion of Iraq and the sacking of the Iraq museum, as well as through the ongoing conflict and destruction of cultural heritage in the region. As a result, the ivories preserved in this book form a unique and unparalleled record of the otherwise lost art of the Middle East.
Kristina Krawiec, A. J. Howard & B. R. Gearey (in press). Archaeological Investigations at Shardlow Quarry, Derbyshire. SpoilHeap Monograph 14, SpoilHeap Publications
This volume brings together over twenty years (1998–2009) of work conducted by Birmingham Archaeology, Trent and Peak Archaeology, and Northamptonshire Archaeology in the Trent Valley, and is based around the discoveries of two Bronze Age logboats. The continuity of place provided by the river as both a boundary and as a communications route is reflected in the recovery of wooden fishing structures and the ritual deposition of artefacts of Neolithic to Anglo-Saxon date. The authors draw from an extensive palaeoenvironmental archive to place this activity within a landscape context. This is illustrated by previously unpublished drawings and full colour photographs, including those from the archive of the late Dr Chis Salisbury.
Gustav Milne. 2017. Uncivilised Genes: Human Evolution and the Urban Paradox. Independent Thinking Press
This book opens a window on ourselves, the cities we now live in and the world we need to build for tomorrow. It argues that a far greater appreciation of our long human evolution (tried and tested by the rigours of natural selection) holds the key to a healthier future for us all.
Gabriel Moshenska (ed.). 2017. Key Concepts in Public Archaeology. UCL Press
This textbook provides a broad overview of the key concepts in public archaeology, examining the relationship between archaeology and the public in both theoretical and practical terms. Based on the long-standing tradition of public archaeology at UCL Institute of Archaeology the book also takes into account the growth of scholarship from around the world and seeks to promote an inclusive, socially and politically engaged vision of the discipline.
Catherine Pearson (with Suzanne Keene (ed.)) 2017. Museums in the Second World War: Curators, Culture and Change. Routledge Series in Modern History
This book challenges the accepted view of a hiatus in museum services during the Second World War. It demonstrates, rather, that ideas and approaches in museums during the war were strikingly successful and similar to current innovative practices, only to fail during a fragmented post-war recovery. Based on letters, diaries, museum archives and government records, and illustrated using contemporary photographs, cartoons and paintings, this study reveals a complex picture of both innovation and inertia.
M.B. Roberts and M.I. Pope. 2017. The Boxgrove Wider Area Project: mapping the early Middle Pleistocene deposits of the Slindon Formation across the coastal plain of West Sussex and eastern Hampshire. Spoilheap Publications
The Boxgrove site is now considered one of the most important localities in the world for studying the archaeology, geology and palaeoenvironments of the Lower Palaeolithic, during the early Middle Pleistocene. However, prior to the Raised Beach Mapping Project and results presented in this volume, the surviving disposition of the marine and terrestrial sediments of the Slindon Formation, which contain the Palaeolithic in situ landsurfaces, was unknown. The results from the Raised Beach Mapping Project demonstrate conclusively that the sediments of the Slindon Formation were formed in a semi-enclosed marine bay between two arms of downland situated on what is now the Coastal Plain, to the south of the current South Downs.
Julia Shaw (ed.) 2017. Archaeology and Environmental Ethics. Special Volume of World Archaeology 48(4). Routledge
This volume brings together papers on archaeology’s engagement with the ethical dimension of past/present/future global environmental discourse. It argues that the study of historically specific human/non-human/environment worldviews and epistemologies, particularly those in which religio-cultural constructs regarding humans’ place in the world are shaping forces in economic, socio-political and environmental action, should be key to building long-term perspectives on the current global environmental crisis. Its publication is timely given the growing cross-disciplinary interest in Anthropocene studies with which archaeology has only recently begun to engage.
Tim Williams. 2016. Final Technical Report on the results of the UNESCO/Korean Funds-in-Trust project: Support for the Preparation for the World Heritage Serial Nomination of the Silk Roads in South Asia, 2013–2016
The South Asian Silk Roads project, currently including China, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, explores the evidence for trans-Himalayan trade and pilgrimage routes, connecting western China (Yunnan, Sichuan and Xinjiang) and Central Asia with South Asia. The report details activities aimed at reinforcing the capacity of national authorities, particularly Bhutan and Nepal, in the documentation of archaeological sites, the digitization of archives, and transnational information sharing; and sets out the South Asian Silk Roads Draft Serial and Transnational World Heritage Nomination Strategy.