Beyond the Romans: Posthuman Perspectives in Roman Archaeology. Edited by Irene Selsvold and Lewis Webb. Oxbow, Oxford, 2020. Pp. 130. Price £40. isbn 9781789251364.

Abstract

concluding chapter presents a chronological overview and discussion of key aspects of transition in the rural landscape over time. Indeed, such transition is not always evident; for example, the picture is one of continuity in some areas between late prehistory and the early Roman period, evidenced by the persistence of a series of rectilinear field systems and enclosures. The site made international news headlines in 2008 upon the discovery of brain tissue in a decapitated skull within an Early Iron Age ditch to the west of the site; waterlogged conditions enabled the survival of what may be the best-preserved ancient brain in the world. This decapitation was linked to the development of linear boundaries on the site, a process further evident in the Roman period. There is no real change on the site until significant landscape re-organisation just before the start of the third century A.D. Several ‘military’ finds may indicate army connections with the site at the time these changes were taking place; the site lies within walking distance of the fortress at York. An enclosed area of the site may have functioned as a ritual compound. In the late third century, a structure interpreted as a possible tower-tomb mausoleum was constructed along one side, founded on a 7 m by 5 m rectangular unmortared cobble base, which survived just below the ploughsoil. Reused stonework from the lining of one of the wells on the site, displaying evidence of the opus quadratum technique, may have been recycled from the dismantling of this monumental structure. Its function as a mausoleum is suggested by the presence of nearby inhumations displaying the unusual rite of large nails driven into the earth immediately adjacent to the skulls. The insertion of five Black Burnished Ware jars beside the hypocausted room of a nearby high-status, late third-century building with opus signinum floors is interpreted as further evidence for ritual activity of some kind. A quantity of ‘Anglian’ ceramics from a midden close to this ritual enclosure could suggest a focus of post-Roman activity on the site. This beautifully illustrated and very readable publication is further enhanced by being made freely available as an open-access digital publication and is produced in tandem with a digital archive available via the Archaeology Data Service, a publication model which is to be much applauded, facilitating ready access to the raw data and thus enabling future reuse and reinterpretation of the evidence.