Personifying Prehistory

Personifying Prehistory is a tour de force that encapsulates the theoretical work that Joanna Brueck has developed over the last two decades and combines it with in-depth and detailed case studies from the most important aspects of making persons in the British and Irish Bronze Age... Brueck weaves a captivating spell, she invites the reader to cast an enquiring eye at the British and Irish Bronze Age, an Age that in her retelling is rich with interwoven meaning, where breaking and forging things, materials, bodies, landscapes, becomes different tunes making up one mighty song. * Kristin Armstrong Oma, Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger, Norway, Norwegian Archaeological Review *
Personifying Prehistory: Relational Ontologies in Bronze Age Britain and Ireland is the culmination of two decades of work by a true leader in the field. The book is richly illustrated throughout with line drawings, mostly by Anne Leaver. This is the first book-length treatment of the British and Irish Bronze Age and is sure to become a standard text for scholars. * Rachel J. Crellin, University of Leicester, Cambridge Archaeological Journal *
The book is beautifully written, highly detailed, thought-provoking and extremely up to date...This is a richly textured book that I expect will stand the test of time; it is important reading for those interested in Bronze Age North-west Europe and for anyone seeking an excellent example of how to draw inferences about personhood and ontology from archaeological evidence. * Chris Fowler, Newcastle University, Antiquity *
If you want a book that emphasises the complex relations out of which the past emerges, that asks us to take the daily lives of ordinary people seriously, and which recognises that the simple oppositions we draw between people, things, animals, and places weremore complex in the past than we sometimes assume, then I cannot recommend this highly enough. * Oliver Harris, European Journal of Archaeology *