Facing the Ocean: The Atlantic and its Peoples, 8000 BC to AD 1500 [Hardcover]

`By distilling what must have seemed an endless labour into beguiling prose, Cunliffe has given us a unique insight into our long ancestry.' Mike Pitts, Sunday Times Culture Magazine

It delivers history from a fresh perspective, encompassing a region rarely glimpsed as a whole. This is an eagle-eye view of unique clarity from an impassioned observer with a discerning mind." The Economist

`Cunliffe's account of the impact of Rome is masterly.' Mike Pitts, Sunday Times Culture Magazine

"intellectually bold and exciting book" Literary Review

`Mr Cunliffe writes clearly and engagingly. His text is enriched by wonderful illustrations. His enthusiasm for the region - his Breton second home, his beloved archaeological sites in Spain - enlivens every page.' The Economist

`lavishly illustrated ... a beautiful book ... extremely good value ... Cunliffe is to be complimented because he has stepped beyond the yearning for Celtic myths to use contemporary archaeology to tell a great story of human endeavour.' Richard Hodges, History Today, June 2001

`intellectually bold and exciting book' Literary Review

`As a synthesis of an under-studied zone in archaeology, this book has been much needed and should be wholeheartedly welcomed.' Jon Henderson, Times Higher Education Supplement

`the style is very readable and sustains interest throughout' Jon Henderson, Times Higher Education Supplement

`Cunliffe's skill lies in knowing just what to highlight and what to leave out from the mass of data available. It is a testament to his achievement that the book hangs together so well as a single work' Jon Henderson, Times Higher Education Supplement

"magisterial book"

"The book will astonish you with the extent of its scholarship"

"It is a brilliant, articulate exposition of one of the most fascinating new ideas in archaeology."

"intellectually bold and exciting book, written with great verve and enviable self-confidence."

In this highly illustrated book Barry Cunliffe focuses on the western rim of Europe--the Atlantic facade--an area stretching from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Isles of Shetland.We are shown how original and inventive the communities were, and how they maintained their own distinctive identities often over long spans of time. Covering the period from the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, c. 8000 BC, to the voyages of discovery c. AD 1500, he uses this last half millennium more as a well-studied test case to help the reader better understand what went before. The beautiful illustrations show how this picturesque part of Europe has many striking physical similarities. Old hard rocks confront the ocean creating promontories and capes familiar to sailors throughout the millennia. Land's End, Finistere, Finisterra--until the end of the fifteenth century this was where the world ended in a turmoil of ocean beyond which there was nothing. To the people who lived in these remote placesthe sea was their means of communication and those occupying similar locations were their neighbours. The communities frequently developed distinctive characteristics intensifying aspects of their culture the more clearly to distinguish themselves from their in-land neighbours. But there is an added level of interest here in that the sea provided a vital link with neighbouring remote-place communities encouraging a commonality of interest and allegiances. Even today the Bretons see themselvesas distinct from the French but refer to the Irish, Welsh, and Galicians as their brothers and cousins. Archaeological evidence from the prehistoric period amply demonstrates the bonds which developed and intensified between these isolated communities and helped to maintain a shared but distinctive Atlantic identity.

numerous colour and halftone illustrations

Barry Cunliffe is Professor of European Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University. He has published or edited many books on the archaeology and prehistory of Europe including The Ancient Celts (OUP, 1997); The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe (edited) (OUP, 1994).