This book is an important study, encouraged by English Heritage, of the potential of using archival material from excavations, especially rescue work, surveys and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, on a large scale and in an analytical way. The analysis of the data draws on the experience of numerous specialists who contribute chapters to this volume. It seeks to update and add new dimensions to our understanding of the development of towns in Roman Britain through their relationship with surrounding rural and other settlements and pre-Roman settlement. Its focus is to use the material to investigate, compare and categorise settlements in terms of patterns of consumption relying on the artefact record to do this. The datasets of finds consisted of coins, pottery, glass, animal bones and registered finds and the sites themselves consisted of thirty-nine identified settlements in south-east England.

One of the key results of the data analysis has been to demonstrate how different the early towns of Colchester and London were from the surrounding settlements in terms of material compositions and this has encouraged the concept of ‘Alien Cities’; their different pottery, food and small-finds assemblages representing the nature of their origins, populations and supply. While the wealth of information described about these two settlements is endlessly fascinating, it could be argued that the archaeology of these two sites is already relatively well known. The analysis, however, is able to suggest new interpretations for such areas as Sheepen in Colchester (p 245) and contribute to the continuing debate on the foundation of London. The book emphasises the presence of an early fortress at London, but there continues to be much controversy and uncertainty about this, as represented by alternative studies and publications. The analysis by the pottery specialist is not so supportive of military origins (p 134).

Perhaps of even more value in the volume is the wealth of information it offers about other types of settlement sites in the countryside, which have perhaps not been dealt with in as much detail elsewhere. Their distinction from the towns is marked in the early Roman period, but the emphasis is on the second century when the style of assemblages becomes more similar, though with continued differences reflecting the nature and functions of the different sites. One issue with the study and categorisation of sites in this way, however, might be that it applies modern perspectives of status, wealth and value onto the way in which we interpret these sites and landscapes.

The book is very descriptive in terms of sites and data and perhaps some of this material could have been placed in an appendix allowing for more analysis and interpretation in the main text. It is one of the powerful strengths of this project that observations can be made through the use of large datasets. Objects can bring settlements to life and there is considerable opportunity to develop the theoretical perspectives of interpretation. Even what might be regarded as simple observations, such as pottery lids present at certain sites compared with others (p 161), could be used to evoke different experiences, domestic lives and life styles. It is here that there could perhaps be more engagement with tackling the complexities of the relationships between humans, things, buildings and landscapes, and also the difficulties with identity itself and interpreting tribal identities. This might be key to addressing social organisations and relationships in the immediate pre-Roman to early Roman periods. Likewise, the biography of things, including coins, may be more complex than simply their assumed functional usage, which might have had an impact on their distributions and findspots. The book in many ways relies on a very conventional way of reconstructing Roman Britain.

Alien Cities offers numerous gems of information that will be invaluable for future studies on, and syntheses of, Roman Britain. It also offers valuable lessons and, in a way, serves as a potential guide for future projects wishing to utilise the vast wealth of data now available in archives and other databases. It demonstrates as well the difficulties and frustrations with such work and the caveats involved, but indicates the rewards of perseverance and collaboration.