Duncan Garrow - Böcker

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.

‘A simply outstanding book’‘Astonishing’‘[A] rich treasure-trove of photographs of objects’‘The book truly is a delight, and is a ‘book of the ancestors’ in a very real sense.’‘Highly recommended.’ - Sacred Hoop Magazine, March 2022Stonehenge is one of the best known, but most misunderstood, monuments in the world. Contrary to common belief, it was not a static, unchanging structure built by shadowy figures or druids. Rather it represents the cumulative achievement of numerous generations who were woven into a complex and widespread network of cultural interactions, environmental change and belief systems. This publication, which accompanies the first exhibition about Stonehenge ever staged in London, uses the monument as a gateway to explore the communities and civilisations active at the time of its construction and beyond, between 4,000 and 1,000 BCE.Recent archaeological findings regarding the origin of Stonehenge’s striking ‘bluestones’ have reignited interest in this ancient wonder, the people who built it and the beliefs they held. Through the ‘iconic’ structure, spectacular objects of precious and exotic material and more humble, personal objects, authors Duncan Garrow and Neil Wilkin examine the dramatic cultural and societal shifts that characterised the world of Stonehenge, including the introduction of farming and development of metalworking. Covering a period of thousands of years, the publication traces the appearance of the first monuments in the landscape of Britain around 4,000 BCE, the arrival of the bluestones from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire 1,000 years later, all the way up to a remarkable era of cross-Channel connectivity and trade between 1,500 and 800 BCE.Through a new study of the enigmatic and beautiful objects made and circulated during the age of Stonehenge, connections are charted in the shared religious practices and beliefs of communities from across Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. The presence of other stone and wooden circles hundreds of miles from Salisbury Plain – including Seahenge, discovered on a beach in Norfolk in 1998 – is further evidence of these shared ways of thinking.At a critical moment in the narrative of Stonehenge, around 2,500 BCE, the significance of the cosmos and the heavens expressed through the construction of stone circles and megalithic passage tombs began to wane and portable objects gained increasing importance. This key transformation is demonstrated by a highlight object from Germany: the Nebra Sky Disc, a bronze disc inlaid with gold symbols believed to represent the sun, a crescent moon and the Pleiades constellation. More modest items found in tombs, burials and settlements are no less important in shedding light on the development of ideas relating to identity, religious practices, and relationships between the living and dead. Monuments such as Stonehenge cannot be understood in isolation. Stonehenge was not always a static, monolithic structure: over generations it was adapted and added to by communities that changed and developed the landscape on which it still stands today.

Aquileia is the largest archaeological site in Northern Italy, which once stood at the geo-political crossroad of cultural exchanges between Italy, the central-eastern Mediterranean and continental Europe. This book explores its beginnings as a Latin frontier colony which, over time, became a flourishing commercial centre of a cosmopolitan nature. By the end of the Imperial Age, it once again became the gateway to Italy, reaffirming its strategic and military role at the time of the barbarian invasions and the spread of Christianity.The archaeological discoveries and results of scientific research made over the last thirtyyears offer the reader an accessible and engaging history of the site that has existed from the 8th century BCE to the present day. The concluding chapters are dedicated to the rediscovery of the ancient city, its political use during Fascism and the modern investments that transformed Aquileia into one of the major archaeological tourism centres in Italy.

Focusing on the archaeology and history of Butrint in southern Albania, this book begins by looking at its foundation in the Bronze Age period through to the contemporary era, where it is now a popular tourist destination. Richard Hodges, who has excavated at the site for over thirty years and is a trustee of the Butrint Management Foundation, looks at the Mediterranean seaport and its changing landscape over the course of five thousand years.Organized chronologically, Hodges presents the latest archaeological data and surveys on specific individual sites ranging from the ancient Greek sanctuary and the Roman colony to the early Medieval Byzantine kastron and the arrival of the Venetians in 1386. He concludes with the arrival of the Italian Archaeological Mission in 1928, whereupon Butrint’s long and glorious history was discovered, cementing its mark as the premier archaeological site in Albania. Designed for students and general readers, this book offers an accessible and lively account of Butrint’s fascinating cultural history.

PROSE Award for Excellence in Archeology and Ancient History Finalist 2019From the palaces of Homeric epic to the ancestral seat of Roman emperors, Troy in antiquity was a place couched in myth. But for nearly four millennia, Troy was also a living city, inhabited by real people. Troy today is therefore a site of major archaeological and historical significance. In the modern world, however, Troy has become as much a symbol as a site. From movies to computer viruses, from condom branding to reggae records, Troy is a word to conjure with. This book explores the significance of Troy in three areas: the mythic, the archaeological, and the cultural, and highlights the continuing importance of the site today. Including a survey of the archaeological remains of Troy as they are currently understood, the volume presents an all-inclusive overview of the site's history, from the Troy of Homer to Classical Antiquity and beyond. The modern day cultural significance of the Trojan War is also discussed, including re-tellings of the stories or representations of the site and myth, and the more abstract use of Troy as a symbol – as a brand for consumer goods, and as a metaphor for contemporary conflicts.