Issue no 35, June 1998

SHIPS AND SHIPWRECKS
Peter Marsden
Batsford, £15.99
ISBN 0-7134-7536-6 pb

This book is a largely successful attempt to summarise the British archaeological evidence for the history of ships and seafaring. Taking technological development as its main theme, it moves from the scant remains of early prehistoric craft through the Roman and medieval periods up until the great ocean-going vessels of the 17th and 18th centuries, ending with a short review of 19th and 20th century advances.

The book is well illustrated and written in an authoritative and entertaining style with many fascinating anecdotes which complement rather than distract from the author's main narrative. Ships are brought into a wider archaeological perspective, dealing with the societies and economies that produced them, the harbours and ports they visited, and the goods they carried. Although the book focuses on British evidence, Marsden, Director of the Ships Heritage Centre in Hastings, illustrates his arguments with examples from Europe, but avoids the global view of nautical technological development isolated from chronology and culture that so often compromises accounts of this nature.

The inadequacy of current legislation regarding the protection and study of shipwrecks (some 30,000 are recorded off English waters, most entirely without protection) is a subject dear to the author's heart, but books such as this can help by raising the awareness of the value and importance of this poorly exploited archaeological resource.

In general this is an excellent introduction for the lay reader, but unfortunately there is no detailed bibliography and only a general `further reading' list at the back of the book.

Peter Clark, Deputy Director of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, has worked on the Dover Bronze Age Boat

HANDBOOK FOR BRITISH AND IRISH ARCHAEOLOGY: SOURCES AND RESOURCES
Cherry Lavell
Edinburgh, £29.95
ISBN 0-7486-0764-1 pb

Cherry Lavell, compiler of the CBA's British Archaeological Abstracts from 1968 to 1991, has scanned vast numbers of archaeological publications in her time, and it is hard to think of a more appropriate person to put together a guide of this sort. This 421-page densely-packed handbook provides a springboard to many of the resources that are available to aid further study in archaeology, mostly in libraries and other collections. Much of the information has never been collected before, and a comprehensive index by Suzanne Atkin makes the information easily accessible.

The main section of the book is an annotated select bibliography, arranged by theme and period, which will undoubtably become a standard source of reference for anyone with an interest in British and Irish archaeology. The choice of publications in any select bibliography is always personal, but all the `classics' are listed and a good many more beside. Other sections on sources, published and unpublished, periodical and photographic, are equally rich, and are combined with contact details for many archaeological and environmental organisations, together with details of the resources that each organisation holds.

The information is highly reliable. Most of it will not change with time, though many of the contact details for organisations will slowly become out of date, and gaps will appear as new material is published. Things have moved on even between the preparation of the text and its publication. The introduction is dated summer 1996, and there are references to books that are `forthcoming 1996', but the volume was not published until late 1997. This is one of the reasons why such publications are so well suited to electronic publication, which can be easily and continually updated at minimal cost.

Evidence for Bronze Age climate change

THIRD MILLENNIUM BC CLIMATE CHANGE AND OLD WORLD COLLAPSE
eds N H Dalfes, G Kukla, H Weiss
Springer/NATO, £172.00
ISBN 3-540-61892-9 hb

Ever since Darwin, archaeologists have generally abandoned the notion of global disasters punctuating the evolution of human societies. However, this book, a collection of 33 papers by archaeologists and climatologists, provides evidence for rampant natural calamities that brought on the collapse of mankind's first urban cultures in many parts of the world in the early Bronze Age.

The majority of researchers connect the archaeological, geological and climatological records to try to prove the occurrence of an abrupt climatic downturn at c 2200BC. The papers range from studies on Nile flood fluctuations and their impact on Egyptian society, the environmental and social changes in the early Bronze Age Middle East, and abrupt climate shifts in North and tropical Africa during the late Holocene, to the collapse of the Indus Valley civilisation, and environmental changes in prehistoric Europe.

The volume thus presents a broad review of the palaeo-environmental data for major climatic and cultural shifts in this period. Unfortunately, it does not cover the evidence for all parts of the world, where similar catastrophic episodes occurred at roughly the same time. While the authors document convincing proof of the effects of climatic punctuations, they don't assess the most reliable signals of abrupt climate change, those found in the tree-ring and ice-core records. Moreover, the publication ignores the evidence, available at least 50 years ago, of significant tectonic activity in the same period. The extensive evidence for seismic site destruction at the end of the early Bronze Age in Greece, Anatolia, the Levant and Mesopotamia appears to be incompatible with a simple climate model of civilisation collapse and points instead to more complex causes for upheaval.

Seals and behaviour that never changes

7000 YEARS OF SEALS
ed Dominique Collon
British Museum, £25.00
ISBN 0-7141-1143-0 hb

This book is the `hard copy' of a British Museum seminar in 1992 which brought together specialists in the manufacture and use of seals across Eurasia over some 7,000 years. Each contributor was asked to comment on a number of recurrent themes or issues, and this strategy allows the reader to identify some remarkable consistencies across what is at first sight a very diverse field.

The introduction makes the point about the relationship between sealing and writing, particularly in the context of developing bureaucracy and administration. This gives seals real importance in the study of human cultures. But other issues arise. It is striking how consistently precious materials are used, particularly gems and metals. These, not surprisingly, are generally linked to the status of the user, though it is not always clear to what extent this is enforced (for example by sumptuary legislation) or is merely a matter of spending power.

It is also helpful for the amuletic and magical functions of both seal dies and impressions to be reviewed across the field. Again the picture is remarkably consistent. Another theme is the complex intertwining of the private and the public. In many respects the seal has the authorising function of a `signature', itself both a public and an individual sign. However, with seals there was more room for manoeuvre (many people owned several for different purposes). But even when seals had official functions, designs were sometimes innovative - presumably the patron's more often than the engraver's contribution to the genre. Whether verbal or iconic or both, they provided an authenticating `image' of the person or institution they served.

The material provided here for a cross-cultural and broadly behavioural study, over the long term, is to be welcomed. Some readers may wish for a more substantial introduction, pulling together the threads and teasing out some of the implications (the subject has a great deal to contribute to debates about cultural diffusion or universalism, for example), but for those prepared to exercise their own digestive skills, this book provides a feast.

Sandy Heslop (TA Heslop) is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Art at the University of East Anglia