This monograph is based on the author's PhD thesis, and presents an ambitious attempt to describe and explain the evidence for maritime connections over six centuries in the North Sea and Channel region. Strongly influenced by Horden and Purcell's landmark longue durée study of Mediterranean micro-regions, The Corrupting Sea (2000), the currently fashionable concept of ‘connectivity’ forms the main focus for analysis, defined as ‘the transfer of materials and/or people from one place to another, such that a connection is established between those places and the people who occupy them’ (1). Despite such theoretical terminology, this is ostensibly an in-depth study of distribution maps (over 80 are included), in which patterns of coinage, ceramics and a range of other small find types in Britain and the near Continent form the basis for discussion.

Patterns of connectivity are described under the headings of three major maritime exchange systems in the North Sea and Channel waters: (1) the Atlantic system, spanning Europe's Atlantic seaboard to the Western Channel; (2) the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel system; and (3) the Eastern North Sea system, from the mouth of the Rhine to the North Sea coast of Denmark. Each system is given separate treatment in the main text, which is divided chronologically into five chapters dealing with the periods 175/150–50 b.c., 50 b.c.–a.d. 43, a.d. 43–165, a.d. 165–260, and a.d. 260–409. Although Morris states that this chronological division is based on archaeological patterns of long-distance exchange (1), a more detailed explanation of the rationale behind such divisions would have been helpful. Otherwise, dates clearly deriving from written historical sources risk being wrongly portrayed as firm material watersheds, such as the Claudian invasion of south-east Britain: ‘From a.d. 43 continental pottery was imported to Britain in huge quantities’ (54).

The main strength of this book is the collation and synthetic treatment of a substantial and up-to-date corpus of archaeological evidence, including British exports to the Continent. Although much of the assembled material derives from other major works such as Tyers's Roman Pottery in Britain (1996) and Swift's Regionality in Dress Accessories in the Late Roman West (2000), each chapter methodically integrates detailed discussion of different classes of finds evidence into a largely compelling synthesis of broader trends. Under the heading of ‘Determinants of connective change’, the overarching patterns are explained in each chapter, usually with recourse to political and economic factors (e.g. the creation of client kingdoms before annexation, political integration into the Roman Empire, economic growth etc.). A decline in connectivity from the mid-second century is principally attributed to the effects of the Antonine plague, rather than the increased self-sufficiency of the Romano-British economy. The book concludes with a chronological summary, with the expansion and subsequent decline of Roman power in the region being accompanied by a corresponding waxing and waning of evidence for connectivity. Compared with the Mediterranean, M. argues that less favourable environmental conditions for shipping in the North Sea and Channel meant that connectivity was more ‘vulnerable’ to the changing political and economic situation (155).

From the outset M. stresses this is ‘principally an economic study’ that does not deal with the cultural effects of increased connectivity (2). This is understandable on the grounds of keeping the research project manageable, but nevertheless represents something of a missed opportunity. Moreover, the implied separation of supply patterns from the cultural contexts in which demand for goods was created is not conducive to addressing the causes and effects of the growth or shrinkage of long-distance exchange networks. Without the appropriate fine-grained contextual analysis of cultural consumption, it is unclear on what basis M. cites the growth of ‘Romanised’ consumer tastes as a ‘determinant of connective change’, with the Roman military acting as the main agents of a ‘consumer revolution’ (93). While demonstrating the benefits of taking a macro-scale approach to multiple classes of archaeological evidence, some of the patterns in the distribution of individual find types or pottery fabrics would also have benefited from more detailed comparative analysis. For example, further investigation of the various networks constituting the ‘Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel system’ may have helped to shed light on flows of material culture between Britain and the Continent that were less directly linked to Roman imperial expansion and colonial presence.

Overall, this well-researched book succeeds in its goal of characterising the economic factors underpinning the principal flows of material culture in the North Sea and Channel area during the Late Iron Age and Roman period. Although not always addressing the full implications of ‘connectivity’, it provides an extremely valuable resource for the further study of material exchanges between Britain and the Continent.