This volume, as its title indicates, focuses on the environmental evidence from excavations that took place in Winchester between 1972 and 1985. It has been rather a long time in the making and consequently, as acknowledged by the author, some of the methods used for recording and analysing the assemblages of animal bone have since been improved upon. This, however, does not appear to have had a significant effect on the quality or quantity of information obtained from the faunal material under discussion.

The introduction provides the reader with background information concerning the nature of archaeological investigations in Winchester, the sites involved and the proposed publication programme. It also outlines the methods and terminology used throughout the excavation of the sites including the strategies employed when sampling, phasing and dating the deposits. Part 2 is dedicated to the assemblages of animal bone recovered from Winchester's extramural areas, in particular from the northern suburbs and the city defences, most of which were examined by the author himself. The expertise of Maltby is clearly reflected in the detailed and comprehensive manner in which the faunal material is analysed and discussed. The methods used to record the animal remains are clearly stated and their benefits considered, thereby providing the reader with an awareness of the rationale behind their selection and the manner in which their use is likely to bias any results. Several methods of quantification have been employed which not only increases the comparative value of the data but also provides an additional means of evaluating the degree to which the material has been modified.

Results of data analysis are tabulated, presented and discussed according to site and feature type with consideration given to a range of assemblage characteristics, including species frequency, body part representation, the age at which animals died, surface modifications such as marks resulting from butchery and dog gnawing. The data are then used to explore the various ways in which animals were exploited and the types of resources they provided both during their lives and after death. Considerable attention is paid to investigating the way in which animal carcasses were dismembered and butchered, thereby providing evidence for the existence of specialist butchers.

A major part of the discussion is concerned with comparative studies at the intra-site and inter-site level. Unfortunately, the deposits are not so closely dated as to allow a consideration of chronological change and it appears that a considerable amount of the animal bone recovered from Winchester results from the dumping of butchery and bone-processing waste. There are, however, some notable variations and the possibility is considered that these result from differences in the dietary habits and status of people living in different areas of the town. Data collected by the author from contemporary urban and rural assemblages in the south and south-west of Britain, including Dorchester, Exeter and Owslebury, are used as the basis for regional comparative studies and provide some interesting results, especially in respect of animal size and the provisioning of towns during the Roman period. The deposition of animal skeletons and articulated bones is also described with various explanations being discussed, ranging from their possible association with symbolic, or ritual, activity to simply the more mundane disposal of butchery waste or death from natural causes.

The third part of the volume is concerned solely with presenting and discussing the environmental evidence from the western suburbs of Winchester. Results from the study of this relatively small assemblage of animal bone are presented and discussed by Coy which complements the research presented in the previous chapters. Similarly, results from the study of land molluscs by Thomas provide evidence for the local environment and land use. In the final section, Green presents results obtained from the study of the limited plant remains that have been recovered from the suburbs and the city defences.

This book provides a wealth of information for those interested in the role that animals played in the Roman economy and in zooarchaeology in general. The quality data contained in both the main chapters and the appendix offer an extremely useful resource for future comparative studies. The volume will also be of interest to anyone concerned with the way in which Roman towns functioned and interacted with their hinterland.