EAA Book Prize 2025 Winners
Heritage and Healing in Syria and Iraq
Zena Kamash
Manchester University Press
2024
This outstanding book explores what to do with heritage that has been destroyed during conflict. Focussing on the colonial histories and recent wars of Syria and Iraq, it critically examines the post-conflict heritage recovery projects and responses currently on offer. It then proposes alternatives, informed by research into the psychology and neuroscience of trauma and trauma recovery, and taking inspiration from artists and creative thinkers. These envisage gentler, creative and ethically-driven ways to respond to heritage damaged in conflict—ways that recentre people and their hopes, dreams and needs.
The book is theoretically and empirically grounded and successfully incorporates personal experiences. It offers thoughtful, sensitive and nuanced insights into important heritage issues. It is also timely. Indeed, it has the potential to become a classic of our war-torn times.
Must Farm Pile-dwelling Settlement. Volume 1. Landscape, Architecture and Occupation.
Edited by Mark Knight, Rachel Ballantyne, Matthew Brudenell, Anwen Cooper, David Gibson and Iona Robinson Zeki
Must Farm Pile-dwelling Settlement. Volume 2. Specialist Reports.
Edited by Rachel Ballantyne, Anwen Cooper, David Gibson, Mark Knight and Iona Robinson Zeki
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research
2024
These two volumes present the results of the archaeological investigation of the outstandingly well-preserved Late Bronze Age pile-dwelling at Must Farm in England. The short-lived settlement, which was destroyed by fire, comprised a palisade enclosing five houses raised on stilts above a freshwater river channel at the edge of the Flag Fen basin. Its comprehensive study incorporated a vast array of scientific studies and experts. Volume 1 provides a thematic interpretive synthesis of the site, with a focus on landscape, architecture and occupation. Volume 2 then offers in-depth studies of the river setting, construction, dating, artefacts and biological remains.
This is an exemplary, state-of-the-art excavation report. It is characterised by meticulous documentation of the site’s archaeological remains and environment, by exceptional illustrations and by accessible writing. The results are valuably contextualised, adding significantly to knowledge of daily life in the Bronze Age of northwest Europe. Thanks to the superb nature of the site, its investigation and its publication, these volumes will remain excellent archaeological resources for years to come.
Knowth
Helena King
Royal Irish Academy
2024
This book offers an overview of the biography and importance of the site of Knowth in the Republic of Ireland. Over the millennia, Knowth has endured and evolved, from a Neolithic site of ritual and settlement to a Late Iron Age ancestral burial ground, early medieval ‘royal’ residence, Anglo-Norman and Cistercian habitation, post-medieval settlement cluster, National Monument and part of the Brú na Bóinne UNESCO World Heritage Property. The book is intended as a guide that people can use to navigate their way around the site but also to read away from it.
It is an excellent example of how to present a heritage site to the public. It presents archaeological information carefully, without resorting to sensationalism. Yet it does so in a concise and engaging manner. The result is easy-to-read and a pleasure to look at, with accessible writing, a beautiful design and a selection of eye-catching images that enhance understanding of the site. It is a book to be enjoyed.