Celebrates Richard Bradley’s influential career through selected papers on monumentality, rock art, maritime connections, and prehistoric practices.
This first title in the new Oxbow Reflections series celebrates the academic career of leading British prehistorian Richard Bradley as seen through his many contributions to collected works and monographs published by Oxbow Books. In collaboration with the author, we have selected papers that reflect some of the major themes that have been the subject of his long-term research, including many aspects concerning the origins, development and demise of monumentality in prehistory; the analysis of rock art in its landscape, ontological and cultural setting; the role and significance of maritime connections and persistent places in coastal areas in the Neolithic and Bronze Age; and possible interpretations of the deliberate deposition of materials and objects across a variety of temporal and cultural settings. In these papers we see demonstrated the breadth and development of some of Richard’s key interests and most influential ideas that continue to inspire scholars and that have guided and often refocused our fundamental understanding of peoples, places and polity in British and European prehistory. Includes an introduction by the author.
Celebrates the academic career and major influence of Richard Bradley on European prehistory as seen through his publications with Oxbow Books. Papers are selected to demonstrate his key areas of research and reflect the development of his ideas and interpretations. Includes an introduction by the author.
Preface
1. Second Readings: An Introduction
2. Oral Literature and the Histories of Monuments (from Monumental Times:
Pasts, Presents and Futures in the Prehistoric Construction Projects of
Northern and Western Europe. 2023)
3. After the Great Stone Circles (from C. Nimura and R. Bradley (eds), The
Use and Reuse of Stone Circles: Fieldwork at Five Scottish Monuments and its
Implications. 2016)
4. The Dark Side of the Sky: The Orientations of Earlier Prehistoric
Monuments in Ireland and Britain (from M. Dowd and R. Hensey (eds), The
Archaeology of Darkness. 2016)
5. Dead Stone and Living Rock (from B. OConnor, G. Cooney and J. Chapman
(eds), Materialitas: Working Stone, Carving Identity. 2009)
6. Axes from the Sky (with Aaron Watson, from C. Rodríguez-Rellán, B.A.
Nelson and R. Fábregas Valcarce (eds), A Taste for Green: A Global
Perspective on Ancient Jade, Turquoise and Variscite Exchange. 2019)
7. Taphonomy and Cultural Selection: Tony Legge and the Neolithic Pits Beside
the Dorset Cursus (from P. Rowley-Conwy, D. Sergeantson and P. Halstead
(eds), Economic Zooarchaeology: Studies in Hunting, Herding and Early
Agriculture. 2017)
8. Taking, Using and Giving Back Again: The Deposition of Living Matter in
Ancient Europe (from C. Nimura, R. OSullivan and R. Bradley (eds), Sentient
Archaeologies: Global Perspectives on Places, Objects and Practice. 2023)
9. An Assemblage of Bronze Age metalwork from the Scottish Highlands: Dail na
Caraidh in Retrospect (from M.J. Boyd and R.C.P. Doonan (eds), Far from
Equilibrium: A Response to the Archaeology of John C. Barrett. 2021)
10. Ben Lawers: Carved Rocks on a Loud Mountain (with Aaron Watson, from A.
Cochrane and A. Meirion Jones (eds), Visualising the Neolithic. 2012)
11. Mixed Media, Mixed Messages: Religious Transmission in Bronze Age
Scandinavia (from P. Skoglund, J. Ling and U. Bertilsson (eds), Picturing the
Bronze Age. 2015)
12. The Riddle of the Sands (from Maritime Archaeology on Dry Land: Special
Sites along the Coasts of Britain and Ireland from the First Farmers to the
Atlantic Bronze Age. 2022)
13. The Hoard as a Still Life (from A Geography of Offerings: Deposits of
Valuables in the Landscapes of Ancient Europe. 2016)
14. Social Distances (from Temporary Palaces: The Great House in European
Prehistory. 2021)
Richard Bradley is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at Reading University and an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Archaeology at Oxford. Recent publications include: Monumental Times (2023) Maritime Archaeology on Dry Land (2022), Temporary Palaces (2021), A Comparative Study of Rock Art in Later Prehistoric Europe (2020), The Prehistory of Britain and Europe (revised edition 2019), and A Geography of Offerings (2016).
