British Archaeological Reports
The British Archaeological Reports Series contains over 3,500 books of academic archaeological research, including monographs, excavation reports, revised theses and conference proceedings. Founded in 1974, the BAR series is the largest series of academic archaeology in the world, covering all major aspects of academic archaeology worldwide.
| Traded as | BAR Publishing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1974 |
| Founder | Anthony Hands and David Walker |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Headquarters location | Oxford, UK |
| Nonfiction topics | Archaeology |
| No. of employees | Less than 15 |
| Official website | https://www.barpublishing.com |
The BAR Series consists of the International series and the British series.
History
The founders, Dr Anthony Hands (31/4/34 - 7/8/2013) and David Walker, started the publishing business when, in the late 1960s, they were unable to publish the site reports of their own archaeological dig, Shakenoak Roman Villa in Oxfordshire. The prohibitive cost of printing in Britain at that time, and the lack of specialist publishers willing to publish archaeological site reports, meant that Hands, Walker and their colleague Conant Brodribb ended up self publishing. This involved buying a commercial printing machine and undertaking the full production of their own books.
Hands and Walker wanted to include in the BAR series archaeology from areas of the world which had previously been unable to get their research out to an international audience. It was not an easy task to reach the key archaeologists in countries such as Russia, the far eastern USSR, the communist countries of eastern Europe, and Spain under Franco, and involved long slow postal communications in a wide variety of languages. However, the results were effective and for the first time the archaeology of these countries became easily available in the west. The archaeology of the rest of Europe, the Americas, Australia, Asia etc. was also included.
The BAR series is published in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, the five main languages of archaeology. The books are also on occasion published in other languages, with a full English translation.
Publication
The company that publishes the series, BAR Publishing (trading name of British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Ltd), is an independent publisher that, from the outset, has been dedicated to academic archaeology and to publishing original work. Until 1989, all BARs were printed by Hands and Walker on their own printer, and collated, stapled and guillotined in-house. In 1991, Tempvs Reparatvm began publishing the series before being replaced by Archaeopress and John and Erica Hedges. By 2015, the Hedges had retired and Archaeopress began concentrating on their own range of imprints.[1]
Reception
Sebastian Rahtz, writing in 1994, states that "BAR made an important contribution to archaeological computing in the UK", through publishing the Computer Applications in Archaeology conferences.[2]
Further reading
- Davison, David, and Henig, Martin (1996) British Archaeological Reports: Past, Present, and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held in Oxford in June 1994 to Mark the Twentieth Anniversary of BAR (British Archaeological Reports)
References
- "About Us". Archaeopress.com. Retrieved 9 October 2020.
- Rahtz, Sebastian (1994). "BAR, computers, and publication: past, and present". British Archaeological Reports: Past, Present, and Future: Proceedings of a Conference Held in Oxford in June 1994 to Mark the Twentieth Anniversary of BAR. Retrieved 2 March 2018.