Excellent and very easy to use, 01 May 2008
I have seen several books on egyptian heiroglyphs and I have to say this is the best one for beginners by far. Collier takes the reader step by step through the maze which is ancient egyptian language. It explains how to tell which order to read them, how to decipher with relation to context as well as many excercises after each chapter to ensure you can put into practice what you have learnt. For anyone looking to learn this is the book for you!

An excellent book!!, 12 Dec 2005
A brilliant book which is clear, easy to understand, and simple enough for anyone who is dedicated and has an open mind to learn from. I am only 16 years old, so if I can already read simple offering formulas and descriptions of ethical behaviour, most people can. It gets harder as the book progresses but not too hard that I get stuck, and if I am desperate, there are answers to the exercises in the back to help me work out what I have done wrong so I can learn from my mistakes. I am already on chapter 7 and have already had no problems with it, because the teaching is step-by-step until the end of every chapter when there are exercises to do, which are accompanied by vocabulary lists to help transliterate and translate, and in the back of the book there are sign lists with info and even a short dictionary. There is enough in this small book to be able to go to museums or even Egypt itself and impress those around you by the skills you have learnt from this book! This is a perfect start to my career in Egyptology!

Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol, 22 Nov 2005
Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

Hieroglyphs, 17 Apr 2005
This book is a good introduction, however it could have been a lot better. The explanations are quite good but it doesn't confirm to the number system of most other books. Which mars what was a good primer. The diagrams were on the whole good. I would say that this was a good book to get people interested. The title is a bit over the top, since you will not be reading that many inscriptions with the information provided. All in all a decent enough book.

Excellent for General Interest or further study, 09 Feb 2005
Brilliant Book. Very detailed and easily used. Parts of it are a little hard going but the effort is worth it when you visit somewhere like the British Museam or Egypt itself.
I enjoyed it so much i took Bill Manleys Class on the book at Glasgow University

Excellent and very easy to use, 01 May 2008
I have seen several books on egyptian heiroglyphs and I have to say this is the best one for beginners by far. Collier takes the reader step by step through the maze which is ancient egyptian language. It explains how to tell which order to read them, how to decipher with relation to context as well as many excercises after each chapter to ensure you can put into practice what you have learnt. For anyone looking to learn this is the book for you!

An excellent book!!, 12 Dec 2005
A brilliant book which is clear, easy to understand, and simple enough for anyone who is dedicated and has an open mind to learn from. I am only 16 years old, so if I can already read simple offering formulas and descriptions of ethical behaviour, most people can. It gets harder as the book progresses but not too hard that I get stuck, and if I am desperate, there are answers to the exercises in the back to help me work out what I have done wrong so I can learn from my mistakes. I am already on chapter 7 and have already had no problems with it, because the teaching is step-by-step until the end of every chapter when there are exercises to do, which are accompanied by vocabulary lists to help transliterate and translate, and in the back of the book there are sign lists with info and even a short dictionary. There is enough in this small book to be able to go to museums or even Egypt itself and impress those around you by the skills you have learnt from this book! This is a perfect start to my career in Egyptology!

Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol, 22 Nov 2005
Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

Hieroglyphs, 17 Apr 2005
This book is a good introduction, however it could have been a lot better. The explanations are quite good but it doesn't confirm to the number system of most other books. Which mars what was a good primer. The diagrams were on the whole good. I would say that this was a good book to get people interested. The title is a bit over the top, since you will not be reading that many inscriptions with the information provided. All in all a decent enough book.

Excellent for General Interest or further study, 09 Feb 2005
Brilliant Book. Very detailed and easily used. Parts of it are a little hard going but the effort is worth it when you visit somewhere like the British Museam or Egypt itself.
I enjoyed it so much i took Bill Manleys Class on the book at Glasgow University

A Must for Anyone Interested in Prehistory, 01 Sep 2008
If you have an interest on the origins of man and the early civilisations of Europe, then this book should already have a space on your shelf. Brilliantly edited by Barry Cunliffe, the one time professor of European Archaeology at Oxford; this book gives you an insight into the development of human society in Europe from 700,000 Years ago, up until the age of the Vikings.
In short, it is an amazing guide to several millennia of prehistory and early history. The book's chapters cover subjects such as:

1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-40,000 Years before the Present.
2. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution.
3. The Mesolithic Age.
4. The First Farmers.
5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC.
6. The Palace Civilisations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC.
7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC.
8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilisation at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC.
10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond, 800-140 BC.
11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300.
12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD 300.
13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700.

Each chapter is written by an expert on the subject, so we have Barry Cunliffe on Celtic culture, Andrew Sherratt on the Neolithic, and so on.
Because the chapters are often written by different authors, the book often varies in quality, as some sections are slightly better written than others. For instance I found the first chapter by Clive Gamble an interesting read, but I found a few others slightly dry and plodding. That said, the book makes up for this in the sheer wealth of information and facts it provides. The book has many maps, diagrams, charts and graphs, which helps explain the development of such things as tools, or the changes in European vegetation and enviroment.

The book's text is also accompanied by excellent photographs, both black and white and colour. These display photographs of archaeological sites or finds. They compliment the book very well.

Overall, this is a brilliant book, but it certainly isn't for absolute beginners, unless they are brave. The book does have it's downsides in that it can be difficult for the layperson at times. That said, a worthy read for those who'd like to know how civilisation first emerged in Western Europe.

Review of "Prehistoric Europe" by Cunliffe, 31 Jul 2003
I am currently studying Archaeology at University and this book was very helpful when researching information regarding prehistoic Europe. It is very detailed and informative and has many examples and case studies. It is an all round textbook but irrespective of this it would appeal to those who are simply interested in the history of Archaoelogy such as the Stone Age and studying the development of humans from homo erectus to modern day man. Its emphasis is on history rather than scientific methods and principle although there are naturally aspects of this as this is an inherent vital part in Archaeology.

Excellent and very easy to use, 01 May 2008
I have seen several books on egyptian heiroglyphs and I have to say this is the best one for beginners by far. Collier takes the reader step by step through the maze which is ancient egyptian language. It explains how to tell which order to read them, how to decipher with relation to context as well as many excercises after each chapter to ensure you can put into practice what you have learnt. For anyone looking to learn this is the book for you!

An excellent book!!, 12 Dec 2005
A brilliant book which is clear, easy to understand, and simple enough for anyone who is dedicated and has an open mind to learn from. I am only 16 years old, so if I can already read simple offering formulas and descriptions of ethical behaviour, most people can. It gets harder as the book progresses but not too hard that I get stuck, and if I am desperate, there are answers to the exercises in the back to help me work out what I have done wrong so I can learn from my mistakes. I am already on chapter 7 and have already had no problems with it, because the teaching is step-by-step until the end of every chapter when there are exercises to do, which are accompanied by vocabulary lists to help transliterate and translate, and in the back of the book there are sign lists with info and even a short dictionary. There is enough in this small book to be able to go to museums or even Egypt itself and impress those around you by the skills you have learnt from this book! This is a perfect start to my career in Egyptology!

Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol, 22 Nov 2005
Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

Hieroglyphs, 17 Apr 2005
This book is a good introduction, however it could have been a lot better. The explanations are quite good but it doesn't confirm to the number system of most other books. Which mars what was a good primer. The diagrams were on the whole good. I would say that this was a good book to get people interested. The title is a bit over the top, since you will not be reading that many inscriptions with the information provided. All in all a decent enough book.

Excellent for General Interest or further study, 09 Feb 2005
Brilliant Book. Very detailed and easily used. Parts of it are a little hard going but the effort is worth it when you visit somewhere like the British Museam or Egypt itself.
I enjoyed it so much i took Bill Manleys Class on the book at Glasgow University

A Must for Anyone Interested in Prehistory, 01 Sep 2008
If you have an interest on the origins of man and the early civilisations of Europe, then this book should already have a space on your shelf. Brilliantly edited by Barry Cunliffe, the one time professor of European Archaeology at Oxford; this book gives you an insight into the development of human society in Europe from 700,000 Years ago, up until the age of the Vikings.
In short, it is an amazing guide to several millennia of prehistory and early history. The book's chapters cover subjects such as:

1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-40,000 Years before the Present.
2. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution.
3. The Mesolithic Age.
4. The First Farmers.
5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC.
6. The Palace Civilisations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC.
7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC.
8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilisation at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC.
10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond, 800-140 BC.
11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300.
12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD 300.
13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700.

Each chapter is written by an expert on the subject, so we have Barry Cunliffe on Celtic culture, Andrew Sherratt on the Neolithic, and so on.
Because the chapters are often written by different authors, the book often varies in quality, as some sections are slightly better written than others. For instance I found the first chapter by Clive Gamble an interesting read, but I found a few others slightly dry and plodding. That said, the book makes up for this in the sheer wealth of information and facts it provides. The book has many maps, diagrams, charts and graphs, which helps explain the development of such things as tools, or the changes in European vegetation and enviroment.

The book's text is also accompanied by excellent photographs, both black and white and colour. These display photographs of archaeological sites or finds. They compliment the book very well.

Overall, this is a brilliant book, but it certainly isn't for absolute beginners, unless they are brave. The book does have it's downsides in that it can be difficult for the layperson at times. That said, a worthy read for those who'd like to know how civilisation first emerged in Western Europe.

Review of "Prehistoric Europe" by Cunliffe, 31 Jul 2003
I am currently studying Archaeology at University and this book was very helpful when researching information regarding prehistoic Europe. It is very detailed and informative and has many examples and case studies. It is an all round textbook but irrespective of this it would appeal to those who are simply interested in the history of Archaoelogy such as the Stone Age and studying the development of humans from homo erectus to modern day man. Its emphasis is on history rather than scientific methods and principle although there are naturally aspects of this as this is an inherent vital part in Archaeology.

CDROM flaw, 09 Nov 2008
If you are fortunate enough find and buy a copy of the 3rd edition with CD-ROM, get in touch with OUP as the Versabook system doesn't work correctly with Windows XP or later and you will be unable to scroll down through articles. OUP can provide you with a patch to fix this.

A Must for Classics Students, 11 Jul 2008
I've been interested in Ancient Greece and Rome ever since I was a child (Which wasn't that long ago), but I have never done a formal degree in the Classics. If I had studied the subject then I would have found this book invaluable.

It's basically a series of very short essays that cover every aspect of the Classical World, from politics and biography to literature; military; science and philosophy; art; food and drink; economy; law; geography; mythology; religion and social history. It also provides information on archaeological topics.

The book mentions virtually everything about the Classical period. For instance, if you were to pick the book up and look through the 'C' section, you'd find on the first few pages topics such as Cabiri, Cacus, Cadmus, Caecilia Attica, Caecilia Metella (1), Caecilia Metella(2) and so on.

Every topic is written by an expert on the subject, and a short bibliography is given at the end of every entry so that you can check up on their sources.

Some entries have more space dedicated to them than others. For instance Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Plato will often have biographies that run for several pages. A lot of space is also dedicated to language, literature and science.

The only fault I find with the book is that the Late Antique period is not given as much attention as Classical Greece and Rome. I tried to find information on the Scholae Palatina but I couldn't find an entry. Oddly, the Comitatenses do get an entry though, but the Scholae aren't mentioned under that section.

The newest version of the book now comes with a list of new entries, a guide to the area advisors and an index to the intials of the contributors.

At 1,640 pages long, this a very large and heavy tome. The entries are written in very small print, so it could be a strain on your eyes if you have bad eye-sight. No illustrations or photographs are provided in the book.

Overall, if you are serious about the Classical World, you will find this book an absolute treasure. It might be expensive but I think it is worth every penny. Highly Recommended!

Essential but flawed, 17 Jul 2007
Browsing this book is an excellent experience. Articles vary in length, but provide a good overview in most cases; they also provide further reading on each individual topic.

The price is hefty, but worth it - collecting a series a books covering the breadth of information covered here would be far more expensive. It is not limited to the 'Golden Age', but covers developments in late antiquity - most articles take a historical overview of their topic, not just a snapshot. As an example: the article on the mythical figure of Oedipus does not review the well-known story as given by Sophocles' "Oedipous Tyrannos", but ealier and later versions of the story too.

The fault lies less in the content than in the organisation. If you are looking up a historical or literary figure, then it is fine, but working out what heading a particular topic can be found is an extremely frustrating process. Trying to second-guess an editor seems a pointless exercise; when even a "Thomson Directory" provides a cross-referencing index, how can omitting one here be justified?

In conclusion, this is an excellent resource; but at this price, it feels a little too skimped on production values.

A strange omission, 25 Jun 2007
Pages x-xii of The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World contain a list of 56 "Major Authors, from Homer and Hesiod to Plutarch." What is extraordinary about this list is its omission of the name of Sappho, the more so because of the inclusion of her (less important) contemporaries Alcaeus and Alcman. There are no females in this list. Perhaps there are not many women in antiquity who could have been included, but Sappho could have been and should have been.

Excellent, 21 Oct 2005
Excellent, simply excellent. I'm an undergraduate, and I use it every single day. It is the best starting point for research into most topics in ancient history.
Oh, Dr. Mark Taylor: this is not the Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World. That is a different book. And Alkaios is just as important as Sappho, albeit from from a political perspective rather than a social one.

Excellent and very easy to use, 01 May 2008
I have seen several books on egyptian heiroglyphs and I have to say this is the best one for beginners by far. Collier takes the reader step by step through the maze which is ancient egyptian language. It explains how to tell which order to read them, how to decipher with relation to context as well as many excercises after each chapter to ensure you can put into practice what you have learnt. For anyone looking to learn this is the book for you!

An excellent book!!, 12 Dec 2005
A brilliant book which is clear, easy to understand, and simple enough for anyone who is dedicated and has an open mind to learn from. I am only 16 years old, so if I can already read simple offering formulas and descriptions of ethical behaviour, most people can. It gets harder as the book progresses but not too hard that I get stuck, and if I am desperate, there are answers to the exercises in the back to help me work out what I have done wrong so I can learn from my mistakes. I am already on chapter 7 and have already had no problems with it, because the teaching is step-by-step until the end of every chapter when there are exercises to do, which are accompanied by vocabulary lists to help transliterate and translate, and in the back of the book there are sign lists with info and even a short dictionary. There is enough in this small book to be able to go to museums or even Egypt itself and impress those around you by the skills you have learnt from this book! This is a perfect start to my career in Egyptology!

Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol, 22 Nov 2005
Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

Hieroglyphs, 17 Apr 2005
This book is a good introduction, however it could have been a lot better. The explanations are quite good but it doesn't confirm to the number system of most other books. Which mars what was a good primer. The diagrams were on the whole good. I would say that this was a good book to get people interested. The title is a bit over the top, since you will not be reading that many inscriptions with the information provided. All in all a decent enough book.

Excellent for General Interest or further study, 09 Feb 2005
Brilliant Book. Very detailed and easily used. Parts of it are a little hard going but the effort is worth it when you visit somewhere like the British Museam or Egypt itself.
I enjoyed it so much i took Bill Manleys Class on the book at Glasgow University

A Must for Anyone Interested in Prehistory, 01 Sep 2008
If you have an interest on the origins of man and the early civilisations of Europe, then this book should already have a space on your shelf. Brilliantly edited by Barry Cunliffe, the one time professor of European Archaeology at Oxford; this book gives you an insight into the development of human society in Europe from 700,000 Years ago, up until the age of the Vikings.
In short, it is an amazing guide to several millennia of prehistory and early history. The book's chapters cover subjects such as:

1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-40,000 Years before the Present.
2. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution.
3. The Mesolithic Age.
4. The First Farmers.
5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC.
6. The Palace Civilisations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC.
7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC.
8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilisation at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC.
10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond, 800-140 BC.
11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300.
12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD 300.
13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700.

Each chapter is written by an expert on the subject, so we have Barry Cunliffe on Celtic culture, Andrew Sherratt on the Neolithic, and so on.
Because the chapters are often written by different authors, the book often varies in quality, as some sections are slightly better written than others. For instance I found the first chapter by Clive Gamble an interesting read, but I found a few others slightly dry and plodding. That said, the book makes up for this in the sheer wealth of information and facts it provides. The book has many maps, diagrams, charts and graphs, which helps explain the development of such things as tools, or the changes in European vegetation and enviroment.

The book's text is also accompanied by excellent photographs, both black and white and colour. These display photographs of archaeological sites or finds. They compliment the book very well.

Overall, this is a brilliant book, but it certainly isn't for absolute beginners, unless they are brave. The book does have it's downsides in that it can be difficult for the layperson at times. That said, a worthy read for those who'd like to know how civilisation first emerged in Western Europe.

Review of "Prehistoric Europe" by Cunliffe, 31 Jul 2003
I am currently studying Archaeology at University and this book was very helpful when researching information regarding prehistoic Europe. It is very detailed and informative and has many examples and case studies. It is an all round textbook but irrespective of this it would appeal to those who are simply interested in the history of Archaoelogy such as the Stone Age and studying the development of humans from homo erectus to modern day man. Its emphasis is on history rather than scientific methods and principle although there are naturally aspects of this as this is an inherent vital part in Archaeology.

CDROM flaw, 09 Nov 2008
If you are fortunate enough find and buy a copy of the 3rd edition with CD-ROM, get in touch with OUP as the Versabook system doesn't work correctly with Windows XP or later and you will be unable to scroll down through articles. OUP can provide you with a patch to fix this.

A Must for Classics Students, 11 Jul 2008
I've been interested in Ancient Greece and Rome ever since I was a child (Which wasn't that long ago), but I have never done a formal degree in the Classics. If I had studied the subject then I would have found this book invaluable.

It's basically a series of very short essays that cover every aspect of the Classical World, from politics and biography to literature; military; science and philosophy; art; food and drink; economy; law; geography; mythology; religion and social history. It also provides information on archaeological topics.

The book mentions virtually everything about the Classical period. For instance, if you were to pick the book up and look through the 'C' section, you'd find on the first few pages topics such as Cabiri, Cacus, Cadmus, Caecilia Attica, Caecilia Metella (1), Caecilia Metella(2) and so on.

Every topic is written by an expert on the subject, and a short bibliography is given at the end of every entry so that you can check up on their sources.

Some entries have more space dedicated to them than others. For instance Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Plato will often have biographies that run for several pages. A lot of space is also dedicated to language, literature and science.

The only fault I find with the book is that the Late Antique period is not given as much attention as Classical Greece and Rome. I tried to find information on the Scholae Palatina but I couldn't find an entry. Oddly, the Comitatenses do get an entry though, but the Scholae aren't mentioned under that section.

The newest version of the book now comes with a list of new entries, a guide to the area advisors and an index to the intials of the contributors.

At 1,640 pages long, this a very large and heavy tome. The entries are written in very small print, so it could be a strain on your eyes if you have bad eye-sight. No illustrations or photographs are provided in the book.

Overall, if you are serious about the Classical World, you will find this book an absolute treasure. It might be expensive but I think it is worth every penny. Highly Recommended!

Essential but flawed, 17 Jul 2007
Browsing this book is an excellent experience. Articles vary in length, but provide a good overview in most cases; they also provide further reading on each individual topic.

The price is hefty, but worth it - collecting a series a books covering the breadth of information covered here would be far more expensive. It is not limited to the 'Golden Age', but covers developments in late antiquity - most articles take a historical overview of their topic, not just a snapshot. As an example: the article on the mythical figure of Oedipus does not review the well-known story as given by Sophocles' "Oedipous Tyrannos", but ealier and later versions of the story too.

The fault lies less in the content than in the organisation. If you are looking up a historical or literary figure, then it is fine, but working out what heading a particular topic can be found is an extremely frustrating process. Trying to second-guess an editor seems a pointless exercise; when even a "Thomson Directory" provides a cross-referencing index, how can omitting one here be justified?

In conclusion, this is an excellent resource; but at this price, it feels a little too skimped on production values.

A strange omission, 25 Jun 2007
Pages x-xii of The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World contain a list of 56 "Major Authors, from Homer and Hesiod to Plutarch." What is extraordinary about this list is its omission of the name of Sappho, the more so because of the inclusion of her (less important) contemporaries Alcaeus and Alcman. There are no females in this list. Perhaps there are not many women in antiquity who could have been included, but Sappho could have been and should have been.

Excellent, 21 Oct 2005
Excellent, simply excellent. I'm an undergraduate, and I use it every single day. It is the best starting point for research into most topics in ancient history.
Oh, Dr. Mark Taylor: this is not the Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World. That is a different book. And Alkaios is just as important as Sappho, albeit from from a political perspective rather than a social one.

Better value than from the exhibition!, 23 Jan 2008
If you have been to or going to the exhibition at the 02 this is basically the identical book (same ISBN) as they are selling in the gift shop for £35.00. The only difference is that the Amazon one does not have the Omar Sharif audio disk included and it has a different slipcover. In my opinion the audio is great when you are actually walking round the exhibition but standalone it is of no great shakes. This book is a great souvenir of the exhibition, maybe not the most educational but beautifully photographed, would grace any coffee table! Save your cash go to the exhibition and buy the book on line!

great! ...but a little limited, 03 Dec 2007

i bought this for my girlfriend for an extra christmas present. although i am yet to delve in properly, it has a great collection of images and the text is easy to read, broken down well and complimented by maps of burial sites etc. the only faults i can bring up, are that the information about tutunkhamun himself is a bit limited and most of the book describes of the treasures found. still an interesting read and what there is of a high quality, especially the photos which are highly detailed.

i only spent 14.99 on this elsewhere other than amazon, so it's well worth the money spent. hence why the 5 stars :)

No more please!, 09 Nov 2007
Does Zahi Hawass really write this stuff? I thought he was an Egyptologist with a job to do. Instead his name is on every flippin' book and documentary coming out of Egypt -- he is a one-man self-publicizing campaign. And the text is no good anyway, though the pictures, taken by somebody else, are OK.

Glossy and Superficial, 05 Nov 2007
This is a glossy and superficial book which makes an OK souvenir, and the sort of thing to have on hand when you spend time in the loo.

fantastic photos, 23 Jul 2007
This is a wonderful book packed with sumptuous photographs - most of them a whole page in size so you can really see all the details of the artifacts. I also thought the information was imparted in an easy-to-read way. This is a big beautiful book - well worth the money.

Excellent and very easy to use, 01 May 2008
I have seen several books on egyptian heiroglyphs and I have to say this is the best one for beginners by far. Collier takes the reader step by step through the maze which is ancient egyptian language. It explains how to tell which order to read them, how to decipher with relation to context as well as many excercises after each chapter to ensure you can put into practice what you have learnt. For anyone looking to learn this is the book for you!

An excellent book!!, 12 Dec 2005
A brilliant book which is clear, easy to understand, and simple enough for anyone who is dedicated and has an open mind to learn from. I am only 16 years old, so if I can already read simple offering formulas and descriptions of ethical behaviour, most people can. It gets harder as the book progresses but not too hard that I get stuck, and if I am desperate, there are answers to the exercises in the back to help me work out what I have done wrong so I can learn from my mistakes. I am already on chapter 7 and have already had no problems with it, because the teaching is step-by-step until the end of every chapter when there are exercises to do, which are accompanied by vocabulary lists to help transliterate and translate, and in the back of the book there are sign lists with info and even a short dictionary. There is enough in this small book to be able to go to museums or even Egypt itself and impress those around you by the skills you have learnt from this book! This is a perfect start to my career in Egyptology!

Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol, 22 Nov 2005
Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

Hieroglyphs, 17 Apr 2005
This book is a good introduction, however it could have been a lot better. The explanations are quite good but it doesn't confirm to the number system of most other books. Which mars what was a good primer. The diagrams were on the whole good. I would say that this was a good book to get people interested. The title is a bit over the top, since you will not be reading that many inscriptions with the information provided. All in all a decent enough book.

Excellent for General Interest or further study, 09 Feb 2005
Brilliant Book. Very detailed and easily used. Parts of it are a little hard going but the effort is worth it when you visit somewhere like the British Museam or Egypt itself.
I enjoyed it so much i took Bill Manleys Class on the book at Glasgow University

A Must for Anyone Interested in Prehistory, 01 Sep 2008
If you have an interest on the origins of man and the early civilisations of Europe, then this book should already have a space on your shelf. Brilliantly edited by Barry Cunliffe, the one time professor of European Archaeology at Oxford; this book gives you an insight into the development of human society in Europe from 700,000 Years ago, up until the age of the Vikings.
In short, it is an amazing guide to several millennia of prehistory and early history. The book's chapters cover subjects such as:

1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-40,000 Years before the Present.
2. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution.
3. The Mesolithic Age.
4. The First Farmers.
5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC.
6. The Palace Civilisations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC.
7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC.
8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilisation at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC.
10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond, 800-140 BC.
11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300.
12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD 300.
13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700.

Each chapter is written by an expert on the subject, so we have Barry Cunliffe on Celtic culture, Andrew Sherratt on the Neolithic, and so on.
Because the chapters are often written by different authors, the book often varies in quality, as some sections are slightly better written than others. For instance I found the first chapter by Clive Gamble an interesting read, but I found a few others slightly dry and plodding. That said, the book makes up for this in the sheer wealth of information and facts it provides. The book has many maps, diagrams, charts and graphs, which helps explain the development of such things as tools, or the changes in European vegetation and enviroment.

The book's text is also accompanied by excellent photographs, both black and white and colour. These display photographs of archaeological sites or finds. They compliment the book very well.

Overall, this is a brilliant book, but it certainly isn't for absolute beginners, unless they are brave. The book does have it's downsides in that it can be difficult for the layperson at times. That said, a worthy read for those who'd like to know how civilisation first emerged in Western Europe.

Review of "Prehistoric Europe" by Cunliffe, 31 Jul 2003
I am currently studying Archaeology at University and this book was very helpful when researching information regarding prehistoic Europe. It is very detailed and informative and has many examples and case studies. It is an all round textbook but irrespective of this it would appeal to those who are simply interested in the history of Archaoelogy such as the Stone Age and studying the development of humans from homo erectus to modern day man. Its emphasis is on history rather than scientific methods and principle although there are naturally aspects of this as this is an inherent vital part in Archaeology.

CDROM flaw, 09 Nov 2008
If you are fortunate enough find and buy a copy of the 3rd edition with CD-ROM, get in touch with OUP as the Versabook system doesn't work correctly with Windows XP or later and you will be unable to scroll down through articles. OUP can provide you with a patch to fix this.

A Must for Classics Students, 11 Jul 2008
I've been interested in Ancient Greece and Rome ever since I was a child (Which wasn't that long ago), but I have never done a formal degree in the Classics. If I had studied the subject then I would have found this book invaluable.

It's basically a series of very short essays that cover every aspect of the Classical World, from politics and biography to literature; military; science and philosophy; art; food and drink; economy; law; geography; mythology; religion and social history. It also provides information on archaeological topics.

The book mentions virtually everything about the Classical period. For instance, if you were to pick the book up and look through the 'C' section, you'd find on the first few pages topics such as Cabiri, Cacus, Cadmus, Caecilia Attica, Caecilia Metella (1), Caecilia Metella(2) and so on.

Every topic is written by an expert on the subject, and a short bibliography is given at the end of every entry so that you can check up on their sources.

Some entries have more space dedicated to them than others. For instance Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Plato will often have biographies that run for several pages. A lot of space is also dedicated to language, literature and science.

The only fault I find with the book is that the Late Antique period is not given as much attention as Classical Greece and Rome. I tried to find information on the Scholae Palatina but I couldn't find an entry. Oddly, the Comitatenses do get an entry though, but the Scholae aren't mentioned under that section.

The newest version of the book now comes with a list of new entries, a guide to the area advisors and an index to the intials of the contributors.

At 1,640 pages long, this a very large and heavy tome. The entries are written in very small print, so it could be a strain on your eyes if you have bad eye-sight. No illustrations or photographs are provided in the book.

Overall, if you are serious about the Classical World, you will find this book an absolute treasure. It might be expensive but I think it is worth every penny. Highly Recommended!

Essential but flawed, 17 Jul 2007
Browsing this book is an excellent experience. Articles vary in length, but provide a good overview in most cases; they also provide further reading on each individual topic.

The price is hefty, but worth it - collecting a series a books covering the breadth of information covered here would be far more expensive. It is not limited to the 'Golden Age', but covers developments in late antiquity - most articles take a historical overview of their topic, not just a snapshot. As an example: the article on the mythical figure of Oedipus does not review the well-known story as given by Sophocles' "Oedipous Tyrannos", but ealier and later versions of the story too.

The fault lies less in the content than in the organisation. If you are looking up a historical or literary figure, then it is fine, but working out what heading a particular topic can be found is an extremely frustrating process. Trying to second-guess an editor seems a pointless exercise; when even a "Thomson Directory" provides a cross-referencing index, how can omitting one here be justified?

In conclusion, this is an excellent resource; but at this price, it feels a little too skimped on production values.

A strange omission, 25 Jun 2007
Pages x-xii of The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World contain a list of 56 "Major Authors, from Homer and Hesiod to Plutarch." What is extraordinary about this list is its omission of the name of Sappho, the more so because of the inclusion of her (less important) contemporaries Alcaeus and Alcman. There are no females in this list. Perhaps there are not many women in antiquity who could have been included, but Sappho could have been and should have been.

Excellent, 21 Oct 2005
Excellent, simply excellent. I'm an undergraduate, and I use it every single day. It is the best starting point for research into most topics in ancient history.
Oh, Dr. Mark Taylor: this is not the Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World. That is a different book. And Alkaios is just as important as Sappho, albeit from from a political perspective rather than a social one.

Better value than from the exhibition!, 23 Jan 2008
If you have been to or going to the exhibition at the 02 this is basically the identical book (same ISBN) as they are selling in the gift shop for £35.00. The only difference is that the Amazon one does not have the Omar Sharif audio disk included and it has a different slipcover. In my opinion the audio is great when you are actually walking round the exhibition but standalone it is of no great shakes. This book is a great souvenir of the exhibition, maybe not the most educational but beautifully photographed, would grace any coffee table! Save your cash go to the exhibition and buy the book on line!

great! ...but a little limited, 03 Dec 2007

i bought this for my girlfriend for an extra christmas present. although i am yet to delve in properly, it has a great collection of images and the text is easy to read, broken down well and complimented by maps of burial sites etc. the only faults i can bring up, are that the information about tutunkhamun himself is a bit limited and most of the book describes of the treasures found. still an interesting read and what there is of a high quality, especially the photos which are highly detailed.

i only spent 14.99 on this elsewhere other than amazon, so it's well worth the money spent. hence why the 5 stars :)

No more please!, 09 Nov 2007
Does Zahi Hawass really write this stuff? I thought he was an Egyptologist with a job to do. Instead his name is on every flippin' book and documentary coming out of Egypt -- he is a one-man self-publicizing campaign. And the text is no good anyway, though the pictures, taken by somebody else, are OK.

Glossy and Superficial, 05 Nov 2007
This is a glossy and superficial book which makes an OK souvenir, and the sort of thing to have on hand when you spend time in the loo.

fantastic photos, 23 Jul 2007
This is a wonderful book packed with sumptuous photographs - most of them a whole page in size so you can really see all the details of the artifacts. I also thought the information was imparted in an easy-to-read way. This is a big beautiful book - well worth the money.

Best guide to the Valley, 05 Nov 2002
I have been to the Valley of the Kings now about 15-20 times, and for me it is still one of the most powerful and impressive places in the world. When you consider that some of the most powerful men and women were buried here, in a short period, it leaves you in awe.
Previous to reading this book, I had used the John Rohmer book, Valley of the Kings. This is also a good book, but it is not a guide, it is more a historic introduction to the Valley.
For anyone with not a great knowledge of Luxor or ancient Egypt, this is the perfect guide. It assumes no previous knowledge of the history of the area, and explains it well.
The maps and plans are usful, as they can give you an idea of what is there.

THE COMPLETE ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER, 21 May 2002
Nicholas and Richard have come up trumps yet again. This dynamic duo has put together a superb piece of work that acts as your passport to "The Valley". With this book in your hands you can almost be there and certainly take in fact after fact without heat, flies and sand. However, for anybody visiting The Valley this has got to be in your rucksack as an aide memoire while you seek out the tombs, burial pits and much more. These well-seasoned writers (Nicholas has written a similar book in this series, The Complete Tutankhamun and Richard the Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt) provide plans of tombs, photographs and have gone into fine detail. For those of you who need a reference work I suggest you take a look, I did and I am very happy thank you. This masterpiece has plenty of detail on the finds in each tomb with oodles of background information. The authors also provide you with guidance on which tombs to visit if you have time constraints. For those of you who like to hear and see another point of view, consider reading 'Guide to the Valley of the Kings' by Alberto Siliotti. Alberto captures the bigger picture with a touch more visual emphasis on tomb layout and wall detail. Both of these books are excellent and I would find it difficult to choose one over the other and resulted in my obtaining both!

No Egyptology bookshelf should be without it..., 08 Sep 2000
Any book by Nicholas Reeves is worth reading, and a book by Nicholas Reeves on the Valley of the Kings is a treat indeed.

This is a wonderfully-illustrated, updated and more accessible version of Reeves' hard-to-find, hard-to-read and hard-to-afford Valley of the Kings: Decline of a Royal Necropolis. In other words, it's the only book you'll ever need on the Valley of the Kings in general.

This book fully delivers on it's titled promise of being complete - every aspect of the Valley and its tombs is covered, and if there's something missing here, I can't find it.

Packed with maps, illustrations and photographs, this book is as much a joy to look at as it is to read. Nicholas Reeves has a real passion for the Valley of the Kings and had produced a brilliant and detailed work on its history, excavation, tombs and abandonment.

Read it from cover to cover, use it as a (reliable) reference work, dip into it from time to time...however you use this book, you'll enjoy it.

In my opinion this is one of the very best generally-available books on Ancient Egypt at the moment.

Excellent and very easy to use, 01 May 2008
I have seen several books on egyptian heiroglyphs and I have to say this is the best one for beginners by far. Collier takes the reader step by step through the maze which is ancient egyptian language. It explains how to tell which order to read them, how to decipher with relation to context as well as many excercises after each chapter to ensure you can put into practice what you have learnt. For anyone looking to learn this is the book for you!

An excellent book!!, 12 Dec 2005
A brilliant book which is clear, easy to understand, and simple enough for anyone who is dedicated and has an open mind to learn from. I am only 16 years old, so if I can already read simple offering formulas and descriptions of ethical behaviour, most people can. It gets harder as the book progresses but not too hard that I get stuck, and if I am desperate, there are answers to the exercises in the back to help me work out what I have done wrong so I can learn from my mistakes. I am already on chapter 7 and have already had no problems with it, because the teaching is step-by-step until the end of every chapter when there are exercises to do, which are accompanied by vocabulary lists to help transliterate and translate, and in the back of the book there are sign lists with info and even a short dictionary. There is enough in this small book to be able to go to museums or even Egypt itself and impress those around you by the skills you have learnt from this book! This is a perfect start to my career in Egyptology!

Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol, 22 Nov 2005
Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

Hieroglyphs, 17 Apr 2005
This book is a good introduction, however it could have been a lot better. The explanations are quite good but it doesn't confirm to the number system of most other books. Which mars what was a good primer. The diagrams were on the whole good. I would say that this was a good book to get people interested. The title is a bit over the top, since you will not be reading that many inscriptions with the information provided. All in all a decent enough book.

Excellent for General Interest or further study, 09 Feb 2005
Brilliant Book. Very detailed and easily used. Parts of it are a little hard going but the effort is worth it when you visit somewhere like the British Museam or Egypt itself.
I enjoyed it so much i took Bill Manleys Class on the book at Glasgow University

A Must for Anyone Interested in Prehistory, 01 Sep 2008
If you have an interest on the origins of man and the early civilisations of Europe, then this book should already have a space on your shelf. Brilliantly edited by Barry Cunliffe, the one time professor of European Archaeology at Oxford; this book gives you an insight into the development of human society in Europe from 700,000 Years ago, up until the age of the Vikings.
In short, it is an amazing guide to several millennia of prehistory and early history. The book's chapters cover subjects such as:

1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-40,000 Years before the Present.
2. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution.
3. The Mesolithic Age.
4. The First Farmers.
5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC.
6. The Palace Civilisations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC.
7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC.
8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilisation at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC.
10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond, 800-140 BC.
11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300.
12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD 300.
13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700.

Each chapter is written by an expert on the subject, so we have Barry Cunliffe on Celtic culture, Andrew Sherratt on the Neolithic, and so on.
Because the chapters are often written by different authors, the book often varies in quality, as some sections are slightly better written than others. For instance I found the first chapter by Clive Gamble an interesting read, but I found a few others slightly dry and plodding. That said, the book makes up for this in the sheer wealth of information and facts it provides. The book has many maps, diagrams, charts and graphs, which helps explain the development of such things as tools, or the changes in European vegetation and enviroment.

The book's text is also accompanied by excellent photographs, both black and white and colour. These display photographs of archaeological sites or finds. They compliment the book very well.

Overall, this is a brilliant book, but it certainly isn't for absolute beginners, unless they are brave. The book does have it's downsides in that it can be difficult for the layperson at times. That said, a worthy read for those who'd like to know how civilisation first emerged in Western Europe.

Review of "Prehistoric Europe" by Cunliffe, 31 Jul 2003
I am currently studying Archaeology at University and this book was very helpful when researching information regarding prehistoic Europe. It is very detailed and informative and has many examples and case studies. It is an all round textbook but irrespective of this it would appeal to those who are simply interested in the history of Archaoelogy such as the Stone Age and studying the development of humans from homo erectus to modern day man. Its emphasis is on history rather than scientific methods and principle although there are naturally aspects of this as this is an inherent vital part in Archaeology.

CDROM flaw, 09 Nov 2008
If you are fortunate enough find and buy a copy of the 3rd edition with CD-ROM, get in touch with OUP as the Versabook system doesn't work correctly with Windows XP or later and you will be unable to scroll down through articles. OUP can provide you with a patch to fix this.

A Must for Classics Students, 11 Jul 2008
I've been interested in Ancient Greece and Rome ever since I was a child (Which wasn't that long ago), but I have never done a formal degree in the Classics. If I had studied the subject then I would have found this book invaluable.

It's basically a series of very short essays that cover every aspect of the Classical World, from politics and biography to literature; military; science and philosophy; art; food and drink; economy; law; geography; mythology; religion and social history. It also provides information on archaeological topics.

The book mentions virtually everything about the Classical period. For instance, if you were to pick the book up and look through the 'C' section, you'd find on the first few pages topics such as Cabiri, Cacus, Cadmus, Caecilia Attica, Caecilia Metella (1), Caecilia Metella(2) and so on.

Every topic is written by an expert on the subject, and a short bibliography is given at the end of every entry so that you can check up on their sources.

Some entries have more space dedicated to them than others. For instance Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Plato will often have biographies that run for several pages. A lot of space is also dedicated to language, literature and science.

The only fault I find with the book is that the Late Antique period is not given as much attention as Classical Greece and Rome. I tried to find information on the Scholae Palatina but I couldn't find an entry. Oddly, the Comitatenses do get an entry though, but the Scholae aren't mentioned under that section.

The newest version of the book now comes with a list of new entries, a guide to the area advisors and an index to the intials of the contributors.

At 1,640 pages long, this a very large and heavy tome. The entries are written in very small print, so it could be a strain on your eyes if you have bad eye-sight. No illustrations or photographs are provided in the book.

Overall, if you are serious about the Classical World, you will find this book an absolute treasure. It might be expensive but I think it is worth every penny. Highly Recommended!

Essential but flawed, 17 Jul 2007
Browsing this book is an excellent experience. Articles vary in length, but provide a good overview in most cases; they also provide further reading on each individual topic.

The price is hefty, but worth it - collecting a series a books covering the breadth of information covered here would be far more expensive. It is not limited to the 'Golden Age', but covers developments in late antiquity - most articles take a historical overview of their topic, not just a snapshot. As an example: the article on the mythical figure of Oedipus does not review the well-known story as given by Sophocles' "Oedipous Tyrannos", but ealier and later versions of the story too.

The fault lies less in the content than in the organisation. If you are looking up a historical or literary figure, then it is fine, but working out what heading a particular topic can be found is an extremely frustrating process. Trying to second-guess an editor seems a pointless exercise; when even a "Thomson Directory" provides a cross-referencing index, how can omitting one here be justified?

In conclusion, this is an excellent resource; but at this price, it feels a little too skimped on production values.

A strange omission, 25 Jun 2007
Pages x-xii of The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World contain a list of 56 "Major Authors, from Homer and Hesiod to Plutarch." What is extraordinary about this list is its omission of the name of Sappho, the more so because of the inclusion of her (less important) contemporaries Alcaeus and Alcman. There are no females in this list. Perhaps there are not many women in antiquity who could have been included, but Sappho could have been and should have been.

Excellent, 21 Oct 2005
Excellent, simply excellent. I'm an undergraduate, and I use it every single day. It is the best starting point for research into most topics in ancient history.
Oh, Dr. Mark Taylor: this is not the Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World. That is a different book. And Alkaios is just as important as Sappho, albeit from from a political perspective rather than a social one.

Better value than from the exhibition!, 23 Jan 2008
If you have been to or going to the exhibition at the 02 this is basically the identical book (same ISBN) as they are selling in the gift shop for £35.00. The only difference is that the Amazon one does not have the Omar Sharif audio disk included and it has a different slipcover. In my opinion the audio is great when you are actually walking round the exhibition but standalone it is of no great shakes. This book is a great souvenir of the exhibition, maybe not the most educational but beautifully photographed, would grace any coffee table! Save your cash go to the exhibition and buy the book on line!

great! ...but a little limited, 03 Dec 2007

i bought this for my girlfriend for an extra christmas present. although i am yet to delve in properly, it has a great collection of images and the text is easy to read, broken down well and complimented by maps of burial sites etc. the only faults i can bring up, are that the information about tutunkhamun himself is a bit limited and most of the book describes of the treasures found. still an interesting read and what there is of a high quality, especially the photos which are highly detailed.

i only spent 14.99 on this elsewhere other than amazon, so it's well worth the money spent. hence why the 5 stars :)

No more please!, 09 Nov 2007
Does Zahi Hawass really write this stuff? I thought he was an Egyptologist with a job to do. Instead his name is on every flippin' book and documentary coming out of Egypt -- he is a one-man self-publicizing campaign. And the text is no good anyway, though the pictures, taken by somebody else, are OK.

Glossy and Superficial, 05 Nov 2007
This is a glossy and superficial book which makes an OK souvenir, and the sort of thing to have on hand when you spend time in the loo.

fantastic photos, 23 Jul 2007
This is a wonderful book packed with sumptuous photographs - most of them a whole page in size so you can really see all the details of the artifacts. I also thought the information was imparted in an easy-to-read way. This is a big beautiful book - well worth the money.

Best guide to the Valley, 05 Nov 2002
I have been to the Valley of the Kings now about 15-20 times, and for me it is still one of the most powerful and impressive places in the world. When you consider that some of the most powerful men and women were buried here, in a short period, it leaves you in awe.
Previous to reading this book, I had used the John Rohmer book, Valley of the Kings. This is also a good book, but it is not a guide, it is more a historic introduction to the Valley.
For anyone with not a great knowledge of Luxor or ancient Egypt, this is the perfect guide. It assumes no previous knowledge of the history of the area, and explains it well.
The maps and plans are usful, as they can give you an idea of what is there.

THE COMPLETE ARMCHAIR TRAVELLER, 21 May 2002
Nicholas and Richard have come up trumps yet again. This dynamic duo has put together a superb piece of work that acts as your passport to "The Valley". With this book in your hands you can almost be there and certainly take in fact after fact without heat, flies and sand. However, for anybody visiting The Valley this has got to be in your rucksack as an aide memoire while you seek out the tombs, burial pits and much more. These well-seasoned writers (Nicholas has written a similar book in this series, The Complete Tutankhamun and Richard the Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt) provide plans of tombs, photographs and have gone into fine detail. For those of you who need a reference work I suggest you take a look, I did and I am very happy thank you. This masterpiece has plenty of detail on the finds in each tomb with oodles of background information. The authors also provide you with guidance on which tombs to visit if you have time constraints. For those of you who like to hear and see another point of view, consider reading 'Guide to the Valley of the Kings' by Alberto Siliotti. Alberto captures the bigger picture with a touch more visual emphasis on tomb layout and wall detail. Both of these books are excellent and I would find it difficult to choose one over the other and resulted in my obtaining both!

No Egyptology bookshelf should be without it..., 08 Sep 2000
Any book by Nicholas Reeves is worth reading, and a book by Nicholas Reeves on the Valley of the Kings is a treat indeed.

This is a wonderfully-illustrated, updated and more accessible version of Reeves' hard-to-find, hard-to-read and hard-to-afford Valley of the Kings: Decline of a Royal Necropolis. In other words, it's the only book you'll ever need on the Valley of the Kings in general.

This book fully delivers on it's titled promise of being complete - every aspect of the Valley and its tombs is covered, and if there's something missing here, I can't find it.

Packed with maps, illustrations and photographs, this book is as much a joy to look at as it is to read. Nicholas Reeves has a real passion for the Valley of the Kings and had produced a brilliant and detailed work on its history, excavation, tombs and abandonment.

Read it from cover to cover, use it as a (reliable) reference work, dip into it from time to time...however you use this book, you'll enjoy it.

In my opinion this is one of the very best generally-available books on Ancient Egypt at the moment.

History as it should be written. , 09 May 2008
Ward-Perkins makes his case (that the Fall of Rome really was an epochal catastrophe) so concisely and elegantly, and without any loss of detail or academic rigour, that it shames many an academic historian whose works are heavy going, even for other historians. The seamless interweaving of documentary and archaeological evidence, the graphics and clear pursuit of a particular historiographical view and its relvance to us today - leavened by occasional donnish humour - make this an easy read.

Particularly interesting to read this alongside Peter Heather's (another Oxford historian) book on the Fall of Rome, coincidentally published around the same time but taking a different angle.



Not quite., 26 Mar 2008
Mr. Perkins is a arqueologist who writes a book on history (for those who d'ont know history studies documents and archaeology studies objects). The result is not convincing: the work is not properly suported by document research and the archaeology part seams to be resumed to pottery finding.
The author contradits himself often. At one point he says that the empire was still quite strong on the V century only to further on saying that lack of money resulted on a diminished and weakened army. Another example: the author compares the roman economy to the west's XX century one; but then he goes on to compare it with the soviet one - the second is defendable; the first is absurd.
Mr Perkins has a soft spot for the romans wich I share with him. But that doesn't stop me from recognising their weaknesses: it was extremely centralised, the governement being responsable for most economic activity wich resulted on a lack of enterprise (remember that a large part of the population was enslaved and that roman citizens did not look well on business entrepreneurship). All this resulted on lack of flexibility to meet the financial crisis of the III and V centuries.
Rome did us the favour of falling at the right moment. And it was the political fragmentation that followed that created the basis for the competition that made europe great.

Elegant and readable introduction to a complex period, 21 Feb 2008
This concise and elegantly written little book makes an excellent introduction to more detailed analyses of a complex period. Ward-Perkins views are trenchant, logical, well-argued and even witty; he refuses to toe the politically correct line which would have us evaluate a crude hand built pot at the same level as Samian ware... the picture he paints of the period between the Roman Empire and the re-emergence of a literate civilisation restores most convincingly the congency of the concept of the Dark Ages.

I recently visited Venice to see the wonderful 'Rome and the Barbarians' exhibition, and it is significant that the monograph discussion of this period in the catalogue raisonne refers to this book several times with high praise.

One Man's Civilisation Is Another Man's Third Reich, 16 Aug 2007
Professor Ward-Perkins has done an interesting, if short, book on a majestic theme - the fall of one of history's greatest empires, and its aftermath.

His main concern is to debunk a notion, apparently fashionable among historians, which I'm not sure many other people ever shared - the idea that the Fall of Rome wasn't such a big deal. Apparently, there is an historical school which regards the whole business as a mostly peaceful transition from the tail end of the Ancient World into the beginning of Medieval Europe. He collects an impressive pile of evidence that it was far from peaceful, and was indeed pretty catastrophic for many of those who had to live through it. Roman civilisation did not die of natural causes. It was killed, and mainly by the military force of the Barbarians.

Well, so far, so good. I doubt if the inhabitants of Italy, Gaul and Spain, who spent most of the years from 405 to 420 having one set of barbarians after another marching and counter-marching all over their homelands, would have any trouble agreeing with Ward-Perkins. Over the next couple of centuries many others would have cause to feel the same way. Nor was this temporary. For several centuries more, comforts that the Romans took for granted would become available only to a tiny few, and sometimes not at all. Pottery making virtually died out in Britain until about 700, tiled roofs, previously common, were little-known in the Middle Ages, and even coinage gave way to barter over wide areas. In short, standards of living, as usually measured, took a prolonged nosedive.

And yet - -. This is all very well, but if the Empire's fall was such a terrible loss to those who lived in it, how come it was never restored? The Chinese Empire "fell" lots of times, but was always rebuilt. When Rome fell, it stayed fallen, and its people seem to have soon become reconciled to doing without it.

Nor can the Barbarians be held solely responsible for what happened. In Asia Minor, which was virtually untouched by barbarian invasion, Colin McEvedy's "New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History" shows four cities - Ephesus, Miletus, Sardis, Smyrna - of between 15,000 and 50,000 people in AD 528. On the map for AD737, not one of them remains. Here at least, the Barbarians were not to blame for the decline, and other factors need to be considered.

At times, Ward-Perkins himself gives significant hints at this. He quotes ancient sources to the effect that, during Alaric's siege of Rome in 408/9, "almost all the slaves that were in Rome poured out of the city to join the Barbarians". And nine years earlier, when the rebel general Tribigild marched across Asia Minor, then a peaceful and prosperous region, his force was soon swelled by "such a mass of slaves and outcasts that the whole of Asia was in great danger, while Lydia was in utter confusion, with almost everyone fleeing to the coast and sailing across to the islands or elsewhere with their whole families". Clearly not all the Empire's subjects loved it.

But perhaps the most revealing incident is from 393, when "the Roman aristocrat Symmachus brought a group of Saxon prisoners to Rome, intending them to slaughter each other in gladiatorial games in honour of his son. However, before they were publicly exhibited twenty-nine of them committed suicide by the only means available to them - by strangling each other with their bare hands! For us, their terrible death represents a courageous act of defiance, but Symmachus viewed their suicide as the action of "a group of men viler than Spartacus", which had been sent to test him. With the self-satisfaction of which only Roman aristocrats were capable, he compared his own philosophical response to the event to the calm of Socrates when faced with adversity."

If Symmachus was at all representative of its ruling class, one can easily get an inkling of why the Empire failed, and see why not only the Barbarians, but many of its own less privileged subjects, might not have been sorry to see it go. One man's civilisation can all too easily be another man's "Third Reich", and one may suspect that many were ready enough to try and get along without the Roman State, even if it did mean having to make their own pottery.

Pottery is fun!, 23 Mar 2007
Don't be put off, as I initially was, by the technical illustrations and discussions of pottery types that at first sight may make this look like the drier kind of archaelogical textbook. It is in fact a witty and stimulating exposition, with skilfull deployment of supporting evidence of both "hard" and "soft" varieties, of the view that the end of the Roman Empire was indeed a violent, traumatic and destructive episode. His view can be summed up as being if it looks like a collapse, sounds like a collapse and feels like a collapse then that is exactly what it is. Seems fair enough to me!

This is not, nor does it claim to be, an in-depth examination of why the Empire fell or a narrative of that fall. Instead, it is an attempt, in my view a successful one, to show that this was indeed a "fall" and not just a transformation or transition from one form of society to another. Despite some of the hype around the book, at least going by the description on the back of the paperback version, I am not sure that this view ever really went away although recent years have undoubtedly seen a strengthening of the contrary view that it was essentially a largely peaceful "transformation".

I found particularly interesting Ward-Perkins' use, of evidence like the aforementioned pottery, to show that the end of the Empire was manifested not just through the immediate and obvious impact of large numbers of greedy warriors with big swords taking over the land, but the resultant loss of links between the various parts of the Empire and thus of the flows of goods and services that enabled the Roman civilization to flourish.

This is not to say that Ward-Perkins denies that the "barbarians" were incapable of any positive achievements. Clearly they were so capable, and he admits as much. But what clearly emerges is a picture of a sophisticated and reasonably comfortable civilization falling into an abyss, admittedly deeper in some places than others, from which it took centuries to recover. (Try Alfred Duggan's "The Little Emperors" for a fictional, and to my mind very effective, treatment of what this must have fet like to those living through it.)

Excellent and very easy to use, 01 May 2008
I have seen several books on egyptian heiroglyphs and I have to say this is the best one for beginners by far. Collier takes the reader step by step through the maze which is ancient egyptian language. It explains how to tell which order to read them, how to decipher with relation to context as well as many excercises after each chapter to ensure you can put into practice what you have learnt. For anyone looking to learn this is the book for you!

An excellent book!!, 12 Dec 2005
A brilliant book which is clear, easy to understand, and simple enough for anyone who is dedicated and has an open mind to learn from. I am only 16 years old, so if I can already read simple offering formulas and descriptions of ethical behaviour, most people can. It gets harder as the book progresses but not too hard that I get stuck, and if I am desperate, there are answers to the exercises in the back to help me work out what I have done wrong so I can learn from my mistakes. I am already on chapter 7 and have already had no problems with it, because the teaching is step-by-step until the end of every chapter when there are exercises to do, which are accompanied by vocabulary lists to help transliterate and translate, and in the back of the book there are sign lists with info and even a short dictionary. There is enough in this small book to be able to go to museums or even Egypt itself and impress those around you by the skills you have learnt from this book! This is a perfect start to my career in Egyptology!

Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol, 22 Nov 2005
Well, what title should I give for a book on Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Actually, the information blurb from the Library Journal linked to the book's entry here states: 'Reference collections desiring more complete coverage will want Alan Gardiner's Egyptian Grammar (1957. 3d ed.) despite some obsolescence in the treatment of the verbal system.'

I actually learned hieroglyphs using that text at the University of London in the 1980s. But I have assembled a collection of more accessible books on how to learn hieroglyphs as refreshers and for sharing. I have four texts, and this was the first of the lot.

If you are truly interested in learning Egyptian hieroglyphs for an upcoming trip to Egypt or to visit a museum with a collection (I amazed a friend once by being able to read an inscription at the museum; I confessed that of the hundreds of 'paragraphs' of hieroglyphs in the collection, that that was one of only two I could decipher without my notebook), Collier and Manley's 'How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs' is a good choice for learning.

It begins with a basic description of the way in which hieroglyphs are used (some signs are words, but actually very few, and others are sound-meaning symbols). Collier and Manley introduce a transliteration system to ease your way into pronunciation (and pronunciation is very sketchy, given the fact there are no recordings from ancient Egypt). Symbols can vary occasionally for sound, meaning, and determinative value.

The pattern of hieroglyphs is also variable. Generally, you always want to 'read into the face', i.e., the picto-glyphs will be facing the direction from which to start -- more often right to left than left to right, and columns go top to bottom. There are no punctuation marks and no word breaks -- this can make meanings hard to decipher.

Consider the example:

IAMNOWHERE
which could be broken into
I AM NOW HERE
or
I AM NOWHERE
and in this case, context might not help provide which meaning is the true one. Or perhaps the author is poetical and sees the trouble of distinction and means that trouble to be present.

No wonder hieroglyphs are hard!

Collier and Manley's book is excellent in basic vocabulary building and basic grammar. And, if you're like me and will make flash cards, you'll become a better draw-er too.

There are exercises, and pictures of inscriptions to practice on, and a key to the exercises in the back of the book.

Hieroglyphs, 17 Apr 2005
This book is a good introduction, however it could have been a lot better. The explanations are quite good but it doesn't confirm to the number system of most other books. Which mars what was a good primer. The diagrams were on the whole good. I would say that this was a good book to get people interested. The title is a bit over the top, since you will not be reading that many inscriptions with the information provided. All in all a decent enough book.

Excellent for General Interest or further study, 09 Feb 2005
Brilliant Book. Very detailed and easily used. Parts of it are a little hard going but the effort is worth it when you visit somewhere like the British Museam or Egypt itself.
I enjoyed it so much i took Bill Manleys Class on the book at Glasgow University

A Must for Anyone Interested in Prehistory, 01 Sep 2008
If you have an interest on the origins of man and the early civilisations of Europe, then this book should already have a space on your shelf. Brilliantly edited by Barry Cunliffe, the one time professor of European Archaeology at Oxford; this book gives you an insight into the development of human society in Europe from 700,000 Years ago, up until the age of the Vikings.
In short, it is an amazing guide to several millennia of prehistory and early history. The book's chapters cover subjects such as:

1. The Peopling of Europe, 700,000-40,000 Years before the Present.
2. The Upper Palaeolithic Revolution.
3. The Mesolithic Age.
4. The First Farmers.
5. The Transformation of Early Agrarian Europe: The later Neolithic and Copper Ages, 4500-2500 BC.
6. The Palace Civilisations of Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece, 2000-1200 BC.
7. The Emergence of Elites: Earlier Bronze Age Europe, 2500-1300 BC.
8. The Collapse of Aegean Civilisation at the end of the Late Bronze Age.
9. Reformation in Barbarian Europe, 1300-600 BC.
10. Iron Age Societies in Western Europe and Beyond, 800-140 BC.
11. Thracians, Scythians, and Dacians, 800 BC-AD 300.
12. The Impact of Rome on Barbarian Society, 140 BC-AD 300.
13. Barbarian Europe, AD 300-700.

Each chapter is written by an expert on the subject, so we have Barry Cunliffe on Celtic culture, Andrew Sherratt on the Neolithic, and so on.
Because the chapters are often written by different authors, the book often varies in quality, as some sections are slightly better written than others. For instance I found the first chapter by Clive Gamble an interesting read, but I found a few others slightly dry and plodding. That said, the book makes up for this in the sheer wealth of information and facts it provides. The book has many maps, diagrams, charts and graphs, which helps explain the development of such things as tools, or the changes in European vegetation and enviroment.

The book's text is also accompanied by excellent photographs, both black and white and colour. These display photographs of archaeological sites or finds. They compliment the book very well.

Overall, this is a brilliant book, but it certainly isn't for absolute beginners, unless they are brave. The book does have it's downsides in that it can be difficult for the layperson at times. That said, a worthy read for those who'd like to know how civilisation first emerged in Western Europe.

Review of "Prehistoric Europe" by Cunliffe, 31 Jul 2003
I am currently studying Archaeology at University and this book was very helpful when researching information regarding prehistoic Europe. It is very detailed and informative and has many examples and case studies. It is an all round textbook but irrespective of this it would appeal to those who are simply interested in the history of Archaoelogy such as the Stone Age and studying the development of humans from homo erectus to modern day man. Its emphasis is on history rather than scientific methods and principle although there are naturally aspects of this as this is an inherent vital part in Archaeology.

CDROM flaw, 09 Nov 2008
If you are fortunate enough find and buy a copy of the 3rd edition with CD-ROM, get in touch with OUP as the Versabook system doesn't work correctly with Windows XP or later and you will be unable to scroll down through articles. OUP can provide you with a patch to fix this.

A Must for Classics Students, 11 Jul 2008
I've been interested in Anci