Chris Gosden – författare

Prehistory covers the period of some 4 million years before the start of written history, when our earliest ancestors, the Australopithecines, existed in Africa. But this is relatively recent compared to whole history of the earth of some 4.5 billion years. A key aspect of prehistory is that it provides a sense of scale, throwing recent ways of life into perspective. Humans and their ancestors lived in many different ways and the cultural variety we see now is just a tiny fraction of that which has existed over millions of years. Humans are part of the broader evolution of landscapes and communities of plants and animals, but Homo sapiens is also the only species to have made a real impact on planetary systems. To understand such an impact, we need a grasp of our longest term development and ways of life.In this new edition of his Very Short Introduction, Chris Gosden invites us to think seriously about who we are by considering who we have been. As he explains, many new discoveries have been made in archaeology over the last ten years, and a new framework for prehistory is emerging. A greater understanding of Chinese and central Asian prehistory has thrown Eurasian prehistory in quite a different light, with flows of the influence of culture over large areas now evident. This has eaten away at the traditional view of human progress around the invention of agriculture, the development of cities and (much later) the industrial revolution, and given us new geographies to think about. Chris Gosden explores the new landscape of our prehistory, and considers the way the different geographical locations weave together.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Archaeology is a vast subject - it is the study of human society everywhere in the world, from distant human origins 3-4 million years ago up to the present day. The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology brings together 35 authors - all specialists in their own fields - to explain what archaeology is really about. This is one of the most comprehensive treatments of the subject and of the key debates ever attempted. It is designed to open up the world of archaeology to non-specialists and to provide an essential starting point for those who want to pursue particular topics in more depth.

Long before the Norman Conquest of 1066, England saw periods of profound change that transformed the landscape and the identities of those who occupied it. The Bronze and Iron Ages saw the introduction of now-familiar animals and plants, such as sheep, horses, wheat, and oats, as well as new forms of production and exchange and the first laying out of substantial fields and trackways, which continued into the earliest Romano-British landscapes. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the creation of new villages based around church and manor, with ridge and furrow cultivation strips still preserved today. The basis for this volume is The English Landscapes and Identities project, which synthesised all the major available sources of information on English archaeology to examine this crucial period of landscape history from the middle Bronze Age (c. 1500 BC) to the Domesday survey (c. 1086 AD). It looks at the nature of archaeological work undertaken across England to assess its strengths and weaknesses when writing long-term histories. Among many other topics it examines the interaction of ecology and human action in shaping the landscape; issues of movement across the landscape in various periods; changing forms of food over time; an understanding of spatial scale; and questions of enclosing and naming the landscape, culminating in a discussion of the links between landscape and identity. The result is the first comprehensive account of the English landscape over a crucial 2500-year period. It also offers a celebration of many centuries of archaeological work, especially the intensive large-scale investigations that have taken place since the 1960s and transformed our understanding of England's past.

This book explores the early history of the Pitt Rivers Museum and its collections. Many thousands of people collected objects for the Museum between its foundation in 1884 and 1945, and together they and the objects they collected provide a series of insights into the early history of archaeology and anthropology. The volume also includes individual biographies and group histories of the people originally making and using the objects, as well as a snapshot of the British Empire. The main focus for the book derives from the computerized catalogues of the Museum and attendant archival information. Together these provide a unique insight into the growth of a well-known institution and its place within broader intellectual frameworks of the Victorian period and early twentieth century. It also explores current ideas on the nature of relationships, particularly those between people and things.

For almost forty years the study of the Iron Age in Britain has been dominated by Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe. Between the 1960s and 1980s he led a series of large-scale excavations at famous sites including the Roman baths at Bath, Fishbourne Roman palace, and Danebury hillfort which revolutionized our understanding of Iron Age society, and the interaction between this world of 'barbarians' and the classical civilizations of the Mediterranean. His standard text on Iron Age Communities in Britain is in its fourth edition, and he has published groundbreaking volumes of synthesis on The Ancient Celts (OUP, 1997) and on the peoples of the Atlantic coast, Facing the Ocean (OUP, 2001). This volume brings together papers from more than thirty of Professor Cunliffe's colleagues and students to mark his retirement from the Chair of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford, a post which he has held since 1972. The breadth of the contributions, extending over 800 years and ranging from the Atlantic fringes to the eastern Mediterranean, is testimony to Barry Cunliffe's own extraordinarily wide interests.

Archaeology is a vast subject - it is the study of human society everywhere in the world, from distant human origins 3-4 million years ago up to the present day. The Oxford Handbook of Archaeology brings together 35 authors - all specialists in their own fields - to explain what archaeology is really about. This is one of the most comprehensive treatments of the subject and of the key debates ever attempted. It is designed to open up the world of archaeology to non-specialists and to provide an essential starting point for those who want to pursue particular topics in more depth.

While Celtic art includes some of the most famous archaeological artefacts in the British Isles, such as the Battersea shield or the gold torcs from Snettisham, it has often been considered from an art historical point of view. Technologies of Enchantment? Exploring Celtic Art attempts to connect Celtic art to its archaeological context, looking at how it was made, used, and deposited. Based on the first comprehensive database of Celtic art, it brings together current theories concerning the links between people and artefacts found in many areas of the social sciences. The authors argue that Celtic art was deliberately complex and ambiguous so that it could be used to negotiate social position and relations in an inherently unstable Iron Age world, especially in developing new forms of identity with the coming of the Romans. Placing the decorated metalwork of the later Iron Age in a long-term perspective of metal objects from the Bronze Age onwards, the volume pays special attention to the nature of deposition and focuses on settlements, hoards, and burials -- including Celtic art objects' links with other artefact classes, such as iron objects and coins. A unique feature of the book is that it pursues trends beyond the Roman invasion, highlighting stylistic continuities and differences in the nature and use of fine metalwork.

'Chris Gosden brings his encyclopaedic knowledge of world archaeology to bear on some of the most urgent issues of our time' David Wengrow, author of The Dawn of Everything What if everything you thought you knew about human history was only part of the story?Life for our earliest ancestors was demanding, dangerous and short, with only the fittest surviving. Homo sapiens triumphed over other related species, creating productive agricultural societies, which grew in scale and complexity until we reached our current state of civilisation.This human story is simple and well accepted. It is also wrong.Humans: Our Seven Million Year History challenges this linear narrative of inevitable human progress and offers a radical re-examination of our global past. Professor Chris Gosden reveals the sheer scale and depth of human difference, charting the alternative paths human societies have followed across time – exploring some of our ancestors' challenging rituals, collaborative communities, and rich emotional lives.And, by reinterpreting our deep past, Gosden radically reimagines our future, showing how modern issues like wealth inequality and environmental degradation weren't predetermined, and arguing that our current system of profit-driven capitalism may not always dominate.He uses a lifetime's research across archaeology, geology and anthropology, presenting ground-breaking discoveries, from the study of ancient tooth plaque to advanced climate models, and compelling storytelling, in a remarkably ambitious, one-of-a-kind journey through our collective human history.

A Telegraph Book of the Year A remarkable, unprecedented account of the role of magic in cultures both ancient and modern -- from the first known horoscope to the power of tattoos.'Fascinating, original, excellent' Simon Sebag Montefiore______________________Three great strands of practice and belief run through human history: science, religion and magic. But magic - the idea that we have a connection with the universe - has developed a bad reputation.It has been with us for millennia - from the curses and charms of ancient Greek, Roman and Jewish magic, to the shamanistic traditions of Eurasia, indigenous America and Africa, and even quantum physics today. Even today seventy-five per cent of the Western world holds some belief in magic, whether snapping wishbones, buying lottery tickets or giving names to inanimate objects.Drawing on his decades of research, with incredible breadth and authority, Professor Chris Gosden provides a timely history of human thought and the role it has played in shaping civilization, and how we might use magic to rethink our understanding of the world.______________________'This is an extraordinary work of learning, written with an exhilarating lightness of touch . . . It is essential reading.' Francis Pryor, author of Britain BC, Britain AD and The Fens'Without an unfascinating page' Scotsman'Chris Gosden shows how magic explores the connections between human beings and the universe in ways different from religion or science, yet deserving of respect' Professor John Barton, author of A History of The Bible

The Prehistory of Food sets subsistence in its social context by focusing on food as a cultural artefact. It brings together contributors with a scientific and biological expertise as well as those interested in the patterns of consumption and social change, and includes a wide range of case studies.

Anthropolgy and Archaeology provides a valuable and much-needed introduction to the theories and methods of these two inter-related subjects.This volume covers the historical relationship and contemporary interests of archaeology and anthropology. It takes a broad historical approach, setting the early history of the disciplines with the colonial period during which the Europeans encountered and attempted to make sense of many other peoples. It shows how the subjects are linked through their interest in kinship, economics and symbolism, and discusses what each contribute to debates about gender, material culture and globalism in the post-colonial world.

Anthropolgy and Archaeology provides a valuable and much-needed introduction to the theories and methods of these two inter-related subjects.This volume covers the historical relationship and contemporary interests of archaeology and anthropology. It takes a broad historical approach, setting the early history of the disciplines with the colonial period during which the Europeans encountered and attempted to make sense of many other peoples. It shows how the subjects are linked through their interest in kinship, economics and symbolism, and discusses what each contribute to debates about gender, material culture and globalism in the post-colonial world.

The Prehistory of Food sets subsistence in its social context by focusing on food as a cultural artefact. It brings together contributors with a scientific and biological expertise as well as those interested in the patterns of consumption and social change, and includes a wide range of case studies.

Archaeology is the only discipline that allows us to take a long-term view across all forms of colonialism, from the Uruk cities of early Mesopotamia, through the empires of the Romans and the Aztecs, to the colonies of modern European states. In this innovative study, Chris Gosden presents a comparative survey of 5000 years of colonialism. Defining colonialism as, crucially, a relationship with material culture, destabilising of older values, changing both incomers and natives, Gosden attempts to understand the history of power, how it is exercised through material culture and how this understanding can generate new notions of interaction and encounter. By defining colonialism through its relationship with material culture, Gosden argues that modern colonialism, giving rise to settler societies, is historically unusual. Synthesising theoretical approaches and evidence from a broad span of colonial regions, this book provides an important new field of enquiry connecting historic and prehistoric archaeology.

Archaeology is the only discipline that allows us to take a long-term view across all forms of colonialism, from the Uruk cities of early Mesopotamia, through the empires of the Romans and the Aztecs, to the colonies of modern European states. In this innovative study, Chris Gosden presents a comparative survey of 5000 years of colonialism. Defining colonialism as, crucially, a relationship with material culture, destabilising of older values, changing both incomers and natives, Gosden attempts to understand the history of power, how it is exercised through material culture and how this understanding can generate new notions of interaction and encounter. By defining colonialism through its relationship with material culture, Gosden argues that modern colonialism, giving rise to settler societies, is historically unusual. Synthesising theoretical approaches and evidence from a broad span of colonial regions, this book provides an important new field of enquiry connecting historic and prehistoric archaeology.

This volume represents an introduction to a new world-wide attempt to review the history of technology, which is one of few since the pioneering publications of the 1960s. It takes an explicit archaeological focus to the study of the history of technology and adopts a more explicit socially-embedded view of technology than has commonly been the case in mainstream histories of technology. In doing so, it attempts to introduce a more radical element to explanations of technological change, involving magic, alchemy, animism - in other words, attempting to consider technological change in terms of the 'world view' of those involved in such change rather than from an exclusively western scientific perspective.

The ancient Celtic world evokes debate, discussion, romanticism and mythicism. On the one hand it represents a specialist area of archaeological interest, on the other, it has a wide general appeal. The Celtic world is accessible through archaeology, history, linguistics and art history. Of these disciplines, art history offers the most direct message to a wider audience. This volume of 37 papers brings together a truly international group of pre-eminent specialists in the field of Celtic art and Celtic studies. It is a benchmark volume the like of which has not been seen since the publication of Paul Jacobsthal’s Early Celtic Art in 1944. The papers chart the history of attempts to understand Celtic art and argue for novel approaches in discussions spanning the whole of Continental Europe and the British Isles. This new body of international scholarship will give the reader a sense of the richness of the material and current debates. Artefacts of rich form and decoration, which we might call art, provide a most sensitive set of indicators of key areas of past societies, their power, politics and transformations. With its broad geographical scope, this volume offers a timely opportunity to re-assess contacts, context, transmission and meaning in Celtic art for understanding the development of European cultures, identities and economies in pre- and proto-history. Essays in honour of Vincent Megaw on his 80th birthday.

Since early discoveries of so-called Celtic Art during the 19th century, archaeologists have mused on the origins of this major art tradition, which emerged in Europe around 500 BC. Classical influence has often been cited as the main impetus for this new and distinctive way of decorating, but although Classical and Celtic Art share certain motifs, many of the design principles behind the two styles differ fundamentally. Instead, the idea that Celtic Art shares its essential forms and themes of transformation and animism with Iron Age art from across northern Eurasia has recently gained currency, partly thanks to a move away from the study of motifs in prehistoric art and towards considerations of the contexts in which they appear.  This volume explores Iron Age art at different scales and specifically considers the long-distance connections, mutual influences and shared ‘ways of seeing’ that link Celtic Art to other art traditions across northern Eurasia. It brings together 13 papers on varied subjects such as animal and human imagery, technologies of production and the design theory behind Iron Age art, balancing pan-Eurasian scale commentary with regional and site scale studies and detailed analyses of individual objects, as well as introductory and summary papers. This multi-scalar approach allows connections to be made across wide geographical areas, whilst maintaining the detail required to carry out sensitive studies of objects.

Anthropologists of the senses have long argued that cultures differ in their sensory registers. This groundbreaking volume applies this idea to material culture and the social practices that endow objects with meanings in both colonial and postcolonial relationships. It challenges the privileged position of the sense of vision in the analysis of material culture. Contributors argue that vision can only be understood in relation to the other senses. In this they present another challenge to the assumed western five-sense model, and show how our understanding of material culture in both historical and contemporary contexts might be reconfigured if we consider the role of smell, taste, touch and sound, as well as sight, in making meanings about objects.

Colonialism has shaped the world we live in today and has often been studied at a global level, but there is less understanding of how colonial relations operated locally. This book takes twentieth-century Papua New Guinea as its focus, and charts the changes in colonial relationships as they were expressed through the flow of material culture. Exploring the links between colonialism and material culture in general, the authors focus on the particular insights that museum collections can provide into social relations. Collections made by anthropologists in New Britain in the first half of the century are compared with recent fieldwork in the area to provide a particularly in-depth picture of historical change. Museum collections can reveal how people dealt with changes in the nature of community, gender relations and notions of power through the shifting use of objects in ritual and exchange. Objects, photographs and archives bring to life both the individual characters of colonial New Britain and the longer-term patterns of history. Drawing on the related disciplines of archaeology, linguistics, history and anthropology, the authors provide fresh insights into the complexities of colonial life. In particular, they show how social relationships among Melanesians, whites and other communities helped to erode distinctions between colonizers and locals, distinctions that have been maintained by scholars of colonialism in the past. This book successfully combines a specific geographical focus with an interest in the broader questions that surround colonial relations, historical change and the history of anthropology.