American Journal of Archaeology

This is a book of evidence. Levy has the tenacity of a bulldog in pursuing and dragging in every possible form of evidence for a very elusive subject that has been central to human existence for many millennia. Because of their ready perishability in most climates, string, textiles, and other fiber objects were long ignored by Mediterranean archaeologists.

The chosen region of study for this well-written book, today lying in northern Tunisia between the Medjerda and Miliane Rivers, is a part of what was once the Roman province of Africa Proconsularis. The vast territory of Roman Carthage, the pertica Carthaginiensis created in the mid to late first century BCE, strongly influenced the development of urbanism in this area.

This monograph, the first comprehensive treatment of Roman frontier outposts, provides a much needed, in-depth narrative of this class of military architecture. Man-made defenses and networks of roads running along rivers or traversing open landscapes all thrived thanks to the lifelines provided by these small, unassuming structures. While focusing on a narrow niche, the discussion skillfully reflects on key current themes in frontier research, including overcoming legacy perceptions of uniformity and the Roman empire’s struggle for border security.

This edited volume serves two purposes: to re-evaluate Roman artworks within their physical and cultural contexts and to honor the estimable career of Elaine Gazda, Professor and Curator of Hellenistic and Roman Antiquities, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan. The book succeeds in both endeavors and is indeed a worthy tribute to Gazda, a scholar of Roman art and mentor to many scholars, especially women, in classical art and archaeology, and it is thus no surprise that the editors and contributors of this volume are all women.

Caesar’s military operations in Gaul are primarily known from the narrative produced by Caesar himself. The Commentaries provide unusually rich literary context for associated archaeological sites and finds. As Christopher Krebs points out in the opening chapter the edited volume under review, if we lacked Caesar’s text, we would treat the coins minted by Vercingetorix as issues associated with a minor but otherwise unknown chieftain; only the text allows us to appreciate the historical importance of these artifacts.

This collection of 11 contributions, including an introductory chapter by the editors and an afterword, examines provincial material culture to tease out new interpretations of gender and sexuality. In the introduction, the editors state their intention to contest the current scholarship on these topics, while increasing the visibility of evidence from the non-Mediterranean Roman provinces. Nevertheless, Roman Britain is the spotlighted province, the focus of all but two of the chapters.

This work is a testimony to the value of international conferences for fostering discussion among specialists. Contributions to the volume were originally papers presented at either the 11th Roman Archaeology Conference (University of Reading, 27–30 March 2014) or the Zooarchaeology of the Roman Period Working Group Meeting (Sheffield, U.K., 20–22 November) in 2014. This volume is an excellent source for both specialist and nonspecialist readers, since it reports new findings and offers a modern, accessible introduction to the value of zooarchaeology within Roman archaeology.