About the Author:
Barry Cunliffe was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007. He has worked on many of the iconic British excavations including Fishbourne Roman Palace, Danebury Hillfort and Hengistbury Head. He is an authority on the Iron Age and the Celts, and the author of many scholarly and popular publications including The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe, Britain Begins, and The Celts, A Very Short Introduction.
Review:
Its fair to say that this book succeeds in re-thinking preceding ideas about Celts in a very approachable (and visually satisfying) way. In the introduction the authors set themselves the challenge of 'stimulating a breadth of original thinking, rather than launching an Atlantic Celtic thesis as a manifesto'. The breadth of scholarly writing here ensures the volume achieves that aim with considerable gusto.' (Alex Lang Current World Archaeology, Oct/Nov 2010)
Its great strength is that it is multidisciplinary, consisting of chapters by archaeologists, geneticists and philologists... Overall, whatever you may think about the 'Celtic debate', this is an important book that provides easy access to multiple strands of evidence.' (Jody Joy British Archaeology, Jan/Feb 2011)
...Koch's analysis reflects the authors superior scholarship...' (Jurgen Zeidler Bryn Mawr Classical Review, Sept 2011)
Nominated for 2011 Book of the Year by Current Archaeology:
This agenda-setting volume suggests Celtic speakers came not from Iron Age central Europe but rather from the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean.' (Current Archaeology, 2011)
The arguments are complex, and involve, as Barry says, leaving the comfort and familiarity of archaeological concepts to try to understand the methods of linguists and geneticists, but the book presents a powerful body of evidence from these sources to suggest that proto-Celtic came from the eastern Mediterranean with Bronze-Age traders seeking metal ores, and that it became the lingua franca of the mining and trading communities of the Atlantic tin trade, which might help to explain the apparent anomaly of a Phoenician gene marker being found in DNA samples from people living on Anglesey.' (Christopher Catling SALON - The Society of Antiquaries Online Newsletter, No. 246, December 2010)
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.