Our full catalogue is presented here by publication date. Volumes published under the McDonald Monographs Series (hardback) are distributed by Oxbow Books/Casemate Academic. Direct links to Oxbow Books are included in the catalogue where the book is still in print. Volumes published under the McDonald Conversations Series (online open access only) have links to the University of Cambridge repository Apollo, where they may be freely accessed.
A small number of back catalogue volumes, where marked, are also available for sale as e-books.
Publications
Inspired geoarchaeologies | Temple people | Gardening time | Fierce lions, angry mice and fat-tailed sheep | Making cities |
2022
Inspired geoarchaeologies: past landscapes and social change Essays in honour of Professor Charles A. I. French
edited by Federica Sulas, Helen Lewis & Manuel Arroyo-Kalin
eBook | ISBN 978-1-913344-09-2 | xvii + 283 pp. | 116 figs | 22 tables | 2022 | Download now
Geoarchaeological research captures dimensions of the past at an unprecedented level of detail and multiple spatial and temporal scales. The record of the past held by soils and sediments is an archive for past environments, climate change, resource use, settlement lifeways, and societal development and resilience over time. When the McDonald Institute was established at Cambridge, geoarchaeology was one of the priority fields for a new research and teaching environment. An opportunity to develop the legacy of Charles McBurney was bestowed upon Charles French, whose ‘geoarchaeology in action’ approach has had an enormous impact in advancing knowledge, principles and practices across academic, teaching and professional sectors. Many journeys that began at Cambridge have since proliferated into dozens of inspired geoarchaeologies worldwide. This volume presents research and reflection from across the globe by colleagues in tribute to Charly, under whose leadership the Charles McBurney Laboratory became a beacon of geoarchaeology.
Federica Sulas is a senior research associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. Her background is in oriental studies and African archaeology (BA Hons, Naples) and geoarchaeology (MPhil & PhD, University of Cambridge). Her main research interests are in landscape historical ecologies and water–food security.
Helen Lewis is an associate professor at University College Dublin School of Archaeology. Her background is in archaeology and anthropology (BA, University of Toronto), environmental archaeology (MSc, University of Sheffield) and archaeological soil micromorphology (PhD, University of Cambridge). She mostly works today on cave sites in Southeast Asia, but she still loves northwest European Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments and landscapes, and ancient agricultural soils.
Manuel Arroyo-Kalin is Associate Professor of Geoarchaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL. He is interested in the Anthropocene, human niche construction and historical ecology, and uses earth science methods, including soil micromorphological analysis, to study past anthropic landscape modification and anthropogenic soil formation. His main research focus is the pre-Colonial human landscape history of tropical lowland South America, particularly the Amazon basin, where he is engaged in the long-term comparative study of Amazonian dark earths.
Temple people: Bioarchaeology, resilience and culture in prehistoric Malta
edited by Simon Stoddart, Ronika K. Power, Jess E. Thompson, Bernardette Mercieca-Spiteri, Rowan McLaughlin, Eóin W. Parkinson, Anthony Pace & Caroline Malone
Hardback | £65.00 / US $86.00 | ISBN 978-1-913344-07-8 | xxvii + 344 pp. | 331 figs | 58 tables | 2022 | Download now
eBook | ISBN 978-1-913344-08-5 | xxvii + 344 pp. | 331 figs | 58 tables | 2022 | Buy now
The ERC-funded FRAGSUS Project (Fragility and sustainability in small island environments: adaptation, culture change and collapse in prehistory, 2013–18) led by Caroline Malone has focused on the unique Temple Culture of Neolithic Malta and its antecedents. This third volume builds on the achievements of Mortuary customs in prehistoric Malta, published by the McDonald Institute in 2009. It seeks to answer many questions posed, but left unanswered, of the more than 200,000 fragments of mainly commingled human remains from the Xagħra Brochtorff Circle on Gozo. The focus is on the interpretation of a substantial, representative subsample of the assemblage, exploring dentition, disease, diet and lifestyle, together with detailed understanding of chronology and the affinity of the ancient population associated with the ‘Temple Culture’ of prehistoric Malta. The first studies of genetic profiling of this population, as well as the results of intra-site GIS and visualization, taphonomy, health and mobility, offer important insights into this complex mortuary site and its ritual.
Remarkable evidence on the bioanthropology of care practised by these populations, together with a relatively low level of interpersonal violence, and examples of longevity, reveal new aspects about the Neolithic Maltese. Detailed case studies employing computerized tomography describe disease such as =scurvy and explore dietary issues, whilst physical activity and body size have been assessed through biomechanical analysis, supported by taphonomic study, isotopic analyses, a review of mortuary practices during prehistory and a robust new chronology. The results form a rich contextualized body of material that advances understanding of cultural change within the context of small island insularity, and provides biological comparisons for the graphic figurative art of early Malta. These data and the original assemblage are conserved in the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta as a resource for future study.
Simon Stoddart is Professor of Prehistory in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.
Ronika K. Power is Professor of Bioarchaeology in the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University, and the Director of the Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and Environment (CACHE).
Jess E. Thompson is a research associate on the ‘ANCESTORS’ project at the McDonald Institute, Cambride.
Bernardette Mercieca-Spiteri is the osteological officer of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of Malta.
Rowan McLaughlin is a Pathway Fellow at the Hamilton Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, where he is principal investigator of the IRC-funded project ‘A deep history of Ireland for the Information Age’.
Eóin W. Parkinson is a Leverhulme Research Fellow at the Department of Classics and Archaeology of the University of Malta.
Anthony Pace was Superintendent of Cultural Heritage on Malta during the course of the FRAGSUS Project.
Caroline Malone is Professor in the School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen’s University Belfast.
2021
Gardening time: Monuments and landscape from Sardinia, Scotland and Central Europe in the very long Iron Age
edited by Simon Stoddart, Ethan D. Aines & Caroline Malone
eBook | ISBN 978-1-913344-04-7 | xxii + 242 pp. | 96 figs | 5 tables | 2021 | Download now
Gardening may seem worlds away from Nuraghi and brochs, but tending a garden is a long process involving patience, accretion and memory. Scholars argue that memories are also cultured, developed and regained. The monuments in Scotland and Sardinia are testament to the importance of memory and its role in maintaining social relations. This collection of twenty-one papers addresses the theme of memory anchored to the enduring presence of monuments, mainly from Scotland and Sardinia, but also from Central Europe and the Balkans.
Simon Stoddart is a Professor in the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge.
Ethan D. Aines is a Policy Assistant at Cambridge Zero, Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge.
Caroline Malone is Professor of Prehistory at Queen’s University, Belfast
Fierce lions, angry mice and fat-tailed sheep: Animal encounters in the ancient Near East
edited by Laerke Recht and Christina Tsouparopoulou
eBook | ISBN 978-1-913344-05-4 | xiii + 289 pp. | 99 figs | 20 tables | 2021 | Download now
Animals have always been an integral part of human existence. In the ancient Near East, this is evident in the record of excavated assemblages of faunal remains, iconography and – for the later historical periods – texts. Animals have predominantly been examined as part of consumption and economy, and while these are important aspects of society in the ancient Near East, the relationships between humans and animals were extremely varied and complex.
Domesticated animals had great impact on social, political and economic structures – for example cattle in agriculture and diet, or donkeys and horses in transport, trade and war. Fantastic mythological beasts such as lion-headed eagles or Anzu-birds in Mesopotamia or Egyptian deities such as the falcon-headed god Horus were part of religious beliefs and myths, while exotic creatures such as lions were part of elite symbolling from the fourth millennium bc onward. In some cases, animals also intruded on human lives in unwanted ways by scavenging or entering the household; this especially applies to small or wild animals. But animals were also attributed agency with the ability to solve problems; the distinction between humans and other animals often blurs in ritual, personal and place names, fables and royal ideology. They were helpers, pets and companions in life and death, peace and war. An association with cult and mortuary practices involves sacrifice and feasting, while some animals held special symbolic significance.
This volume is a tribute to the animals of the ancient Near East (including Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt), from the fourth through first millennia bc, and their complex relationship with the environment and other human and nonhuman animals. Offering faunal, textual and iconographic studies, the contributions present a fascinating array of the many ways in which animals influence human life and death, and explore new perspectives in the exciting field of human-animal studies as applied to this part of the world.
Laerke Recht is Professor of Early Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Graz, Austria, and a former Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge. She is particularly interested in and has published on human–animal relations in the ancient Near East, Cyprus and Aegean.
Christina Tsouparopoulou is Assistant Professor in Near Eastern Archaeology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, Senior Research Associate and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research and Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. She specializes in the material and textual culture of the Near East and Eastern Mediterranean in the third and second millennia bc.
Making cities: Economies of production and urbanization in Mediterranean Europe, 1000 - 500 BC
edited by Margarita Gleba, Beatriz Marín-Aguilera and Bela Dimova
eBook | ISBN 978-1-913344-06-1 | xvii + 454 pp. | 231 figs | 22 tables | 2021 | Download now
Large and complex settlements appeared across the north Mediterranean during the period 1000–500 bc, from the Aegean basin to Iberia, as well as north of the Alps. The region also became considerably more interconnected. Urban life and networks fostered new consumption practices, requiring different economic and social structures to sustain them. This book considers the emergence of cities in Mediterranean Europe, with a focus on the economy. What was distinctive about urban lifeways across the Mediterranean? How did different economic activities interact, and how did they transform power hierarchies? How was urbanism sustained by economic structures, social relations and mobility? The authors bring to the debate recently excavated sites and regions that may be unfamiliar to wider (especially Anglophone) scholarship, alongside fresh reappraisals of well-known cities. The variety of urban life, economy and local dynamics prompts us to reconsider ancient urbanism through a comparative perspective.
Margarita Gleba is a Professor at the University of Padua and Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London.
Beatriz Marín-Aguilera is a Renfrew Fellow at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.
Bela Dimova is a A. G. Leventis Fellow in Hellenic Studies at the British School at Athens.
