Archaeology: Books and eBooks

Information about books, journals, databases and other useful archaeology resources

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Special Collections

Special Collections contains unique book, archival and manuscript collections. UCD students and staff, and external users can consult the collections in the Special Collections reading room. Special Collections is located on Level 1 of the James Joyce Library.

Archaeology Books

Academic Complete

A multidisciplinary collection of over 180,000 scholarly titles from hundreds of leading academic publishers. eBooks are made available on ProQuest's eBook Central platform. Offers unlimited, multi-user access. To view content for specific disciplines, simply select from the "Browse Subject" option page

First year works

The following titles appear in reading lists for first year modules in Archaeology

Archaeology: An Introduction

Archaeology: An Introduction looks behind the popular aspects of archaeology such as the discovery and excavation of sites, the study of human remains and animal bones, radiocarbon dating, museums and 'heritage' displays, and reveals the methods used by archaeologists. It also explains how the subject emerged from an amateur pursuit in the eighteenth century into a serious discipline, and explores changing fashions in interpretation in recent decades.

Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice

This book presents an overview of the world of archaeology. The box features that appear throughout illustrate specific examples of excavation projects, and explain particular techniques or theoretical approaches. The chapter notes and bibliography function as a gateway to the full range of current scholarship— in this way it is also a work of reference for graduate students and professional archaeologists.

Anthropology: Why it matters

Humanity is at a crossroads. We face mounting inequality, escalating political violence, warring fundamentalisms and an environmental crisis of planetary proportions. How can we fashion a world that has room for everyone, for generations to come? What are the possibilities, in such a world, of collective human life? These are urgent questions, and no discipline is better placed to address them than anthropology. It does so by bringing to bear the wisdom and experience of people everywhere, whatever their backgrounds and walks of life. In this passionately argued book, Tim Ingold relates how a field of study once committed to ideals of progress collapsed amidst the ruins of war and colonialism, only to be reborn as a discipline of hope, destined to take centre stage in debating the most pressing intellectual, ethical and political issues of our time.

The Origins of Modern Humans

This update to The Origins of Modern Humans: A World Survey of the Fossil Evidence covers the most accepted common theories concerning the emergence of modern Homo sapiens--adding fresh insight from top young scholars on the key new discoveries of the past 25 years.

Deep History : The Architecture of Past and Present

Humans have always been interested in their origins, but historians have been reluctant to write about the long stretches of time before the invention of writing. In fact, the deep past was left out of most historical writing almost as soon as it was discovered. This breakthrough book, as important for readers interested in the present as in the past,brings science into history to offer a dazzling new vision of humanity across time. Team-written by leading experts in a variety of fields, it maps events, cultures, and eras across millions of years to present a new scale for understanding the human body, energy and ecosystems, language, food, kinship, migration, and more. Combining cutting-edge social and evolutionary theory with the latest discoveries about human genes, brains, and material culture, Deep History invites scholars and general readers alike to explore the dynamic of connectedness that spans all of human history.

Second year works

The following titles appear in reading lists for second year modules in Archaeology

The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland

The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland provides a synthesis of this dynamic period of prehistory from the end of the Mesolithic through to the early Beaker period. Drawing on new excavations and the application of new scientific approaches to data from this period, this book considers both life and death in the Neolithic.

Archaeological Artefacts as Material Culture

This book is an introduction to the study of artefacts, setting them in a social context rather than using a purely scientific approach. Drawing on a range of different cultures and extensively illustrated, Archaeological Artefacts and Material Culture covers everything from recovery strategies and recording procedures to interpretation through typology, ethnography and experiment, and every type of material including wood, fibers, bones, hides and adhesives, stone, clay, and metals.

Paleoethnobotany

This new edition of Paleoethnobotany brings the book up to date by incorporating new methods and examples of research, while preserving the overall organization and approach of the book to facilitate its use as a textbook. In addition to updates on the comprehensive discussions of macroremains, pollen, and phytoliths, this edition includes a chapter on starch analysis, the newest tool in the paleoethnobotanist's research kit.

Environmental Archaeology

This book outlines and assesses the various methods used to reconstruct and explain the past interaction between people and their environment. Emphasising the importance of a highly scientific approach to the subject, the book combines geoarchaeological, bioarchaeological (archaeobotany and zooarchaeology) and geochronological information and examines how these various aspects of archaeology may be used to enhance our knowledge and understanding of past human environments.

Third year works

The following titles appear in reading lists for third year modules in Archaeology

Orderly Anarchy

Orderly Anarchy delivers a provocative and innovative reexamination of sociopolitical evolution among Native American groups in California, a region known for its wealth of prehistoric languages, populations, and cultural adaptations. Scholars have tended to emphasize the development of social complexity and inequality to explain this diversity. Robert L. Bettinger argues instead that "orderly anarchy," the emergence of small, autonomous groups, provided a crucial strategy in social organization.

Exploring the Materiality of Food 'Stuffs'

From remote antiquity to contemporary contexts, food and the 'stuff' of food remains central to people's daily experiences as well as their sense and expression of identity. This volume explores the materiality of foodstuffs past and present, examining humanity's intriguingly complex relationships with, and experiences of, food. The book also makes a fresh contribution to our understanding of materiality through a novel focus on material culture, analysing objects used to prepare, wrap, serve and consume food and the tactile experiences involved in its production and consumption.

A Future in Ruins

Best known for its World Heritage program committed to "the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity," the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1945 as an intergovernmental agency aimed at fostering peace, humanitarianism, and intercultural understanding. Its mission was inspired by leading European intellectuals such as Henri Bergson, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, H. G. Wells, and Aldous and Julian Huxley. A Future in Ruins is the story of UNESCO's efforts to save the world's heritage and, in doing so, forge an international community dedicated to peaceful co-existence and conservation.

Understanding Collapse

Understanding Collapse explores the collapse of ancient civilisations, such as the Roman Empire, the Maya, and Easter Island. In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted. Rather than positing a single explanatory model of collapse - economic, social, or environmental - Middleton gives full consideration to the overlooked resilience in communities of ancient peoples and the choices that they made.

Final year/ Taught masters works

The following titles appear in reading lists for final year undergraduate or taught masters modules in Archaeology

UNESCO Biosphere Reserves

UNESCO Biosphere Reserves (BRs) are designated areas in geographical regions of global socio-ecological significance. This book shows their global relevance and contribution to environmental protection, biocultural diversity and education. Initiated in the 1970s as part of UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) Programme, BRs share a set of common objectives, to support and demonstrate a balance between biodiversity conservation, sustainable development and research.

World Heritage Conservation

The UNESCO World Heritage Convention has become one of the most successful UN instruments for promoting cultural diplomacy and dialogue on conservation of cultural and natural heritage. This book provides an overview of the convention through an interdisciplinary approach to conservation. It shows that based on the notion of outstanding universal value and international cooperation for the protection of heritage, the convention provides a platform for sustainable development through the conservation and management of heritage of significance to humanity.

Historical GIS

Historical GIS is an emerging field that uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to research the geographies of the past. Ian Gregory and Paul Ell's study, first published in 2007, explores all aspects of using GIS in historical research.

Reference Works for Archaeology

Sage Knowledge

SAGE Knowledge hosts thousands of carefully selected titles by world-class authors and editors on hot topics across the social sciences. The platform also includes hundreds of reference titles, providing students with the perfect place to start their research.

The Oxford Companion to Archaeology

The second edition of The Oxford Companion to Archaeology is a thoroughly up-to-date resource with new entries exploring the many advances in the field since the first edition published in 1996. In 700 entries, the second edition provides thorough coverage to historical archaeology, the development of archaeology as a field of study, and the way the discipline works to explain the past. In addition to these theoretical entries, other entries describe the major excavations, discoveries, and innovations, from the discovery of the cave paintings at Lascaux to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics and the use of luminescence dating.

Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology

A wide-ranging, comprehensive, and up-to-date dictionary of archaeology. Over 4,000 entries cover the terms encountered in academic and popular archaeological literature, in lectures, and on television. Topics covered include artefacts, techniques, terminology, people, sites,and periods, and specialist areas such as industrial and maritime archaeology. The second edition is fully revised and updated, now including 150 new entries on archaeological sites, terms, movements, and people, plus extended coverage of archaeological resource management and archaeological theory.

Encyclopedia of Archaeology

This major reference work encompasses all aspects of archaeology, including the nature and diversity of archaeology as a scientific discipline, the practice of archaeology, archaeology in the everyday world and the future of the discipline.