Dr Guy D. Middleton

Historian & Author

I am a Visiting Fellow in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Newcastle University and an Honorary Fellow in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at Durham University. I am also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

My research and writing spans the history and archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, with a particular interest in collapse and transformation, the lives of women in antiquity, and — in my new book — what burial and funerary practices across cultures and millennia reveal about what it means to be human.

Books

Funereal Cover to come

Funereal: How We Die, Why We Bury and What That Tells Us About Ourselves

John Murray (UK) · Basic Books (US) · Find on Amazon

A globe-trotting and illuminating history of burials and funerary practices, from ancient to modern times, from rulers, kings and queens to everyday people.

Throughout history humans have buried their dead in a variety of ways — placed in caskets, laid out in the wild to return to nature, sailed down rivers on burning boats, or interred in elaborate tombs surrounded by all their earthly possessions. Why do we do this? What purpose do funeral rites serve? What do they tell us about ancient societies and how they organised themselves?

Traversing the globe — from the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Mausoleum of Augustus to the Tomb at Palenque — Funereal is an illuminating historical odyssey that asks: why do we bury our dead, and what does that tell us about ourselves?

Women in the Ancient Mediterranean World: From the Palaeolithic to the Byzantines

Cambridge University Press, 2023

Thirty real women of the ancient Mediterranean brought vividly to life — queens and aristocrats, priestesses and philosophers, a Pompeiian prostitute, a Christian martyr. Using burials, inscriptions, graffiti, painted pottery, and human remains, this book places women firmly in the spotlight of history.

'With dynamic storytelling and refreshing sincerity, Guy Middleton delivers a compelling collection of narratives… The prose is expressive and approachable, making this book accessible to both academic and interested non-academic audiences.'

Anna Luurtsema — Antiquity

'Middleton not only foregrounds the lives of women in the ancient Mediterranean, he brings them back to life.'

Sara Casamayor Mancisido — The Classical Review

Cambridge UP Amazon

Collapse and Transformation: The Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in the Aegean

Oxbow Books, 2020

The years c. 1250–1150 BC in Greece and the Aegean are often characterised as a time of crisis and collapse. Twenty-four chapters by specialists offer an up-to-date picture of the archaeology before and after the collapse of c. 1200 BC, examining resilience, continuity, and innovation alongside destruction and change.

'An informative read with up-to-date evidence… a worthy example of scrutinising the evidence as it comes, assembling the facts and endeavouring to face them.'

Megan J. Daniels — American Antiquity

Oxbow Books

Understanding Collapse: Ancient History and Modern Myths

Cambridge University Press, 2017

A lively and critical survey of how we explain the collapse of ancient civilisations — Rome, the Maya, Easter Island — and the myths we have built around them. Giving full consideration to the resilience and agency of ancient peoples, this book offers a fresh interpretation accessible to students and scholars alike.

'The best introduction to "collapsology". Informative from beginning to end and gracefully written.'

Norman Yoffee — University of Michigan

'An essential read for every aspiring student of past (and current) political collapse.'

Patricia A. McAnany — University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Cambridge UP Amazon

Academic Publications

I have published articles and reviews in: American Journal of Archaeology, Anthropological Science, Antiquity, The Classical Review, H-Diplo, Heritage and Society, Journal of Archaeological Research, Journal of Classics Teaching, Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Journal of Greek Archaeology, Latin American Antiquity, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Reviews in Anthropology, Science, Teaching History — Journal of the History Teachers' Association of NSW, and Urban Studies.

I have also contributed chapters to edited volumes including:

The Routledge Handbook of Urban Evolution in Ancient Western Asia and North Africa: The Lives of Cities (Routledge, forthcoming)
The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in Asia (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)
Rituals, Memory and Societal Dynamics: Contributions to Social Archaeology (Brepols, 2025)
The Ancient Sea: Imaginations of the Utopian and the Catastrophic in Classical Narratives and their Reception (Liverpool University Press, 2023)
The Discourses of Environmental Collapse: Imagining the End (Routledge, 2018)
Climate Changes in the Holocene: Impacts and Human Adaptation

Full publication list on Academia.edu →