This work explores the long-term development of the rural community of the Cananefates, whose civitas was located on the North Sea coast between the river Meuse and the imperial frontier on the lower Rhine, in the present-day province of South-Holland in the Netherlands. Today, South-Holland is the most densely populated area in the Netherlands, as a result of which the area sees many activities in urban development and housing projects, providing archaeologists with ample opportunities to conduct their fieldwork. Though each such project is required to be reported, synthesis has been lacking. Jasper de Bruin's doctoral dissertation (Leiden University, 2017) on the area during Roman times was therefore much anticipated. It now appears in a revised and translated edition.

After an introduction to research themes, aims and approaches (ch. 1), followed by an overview of the landscape and habitation of the research area in Roman times (ch. 2), it becomes clear de Bruin approaches the subject through studying not merely the Cananefates, but all three communities in the area. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 are reserved for the Roman military community, the urban community and the rural community, each presented through a detailed description of the archaeological remains. Chapters 6 and 7 feature synthesis and conclusions. An appendix provides a list of Roman sites in the research area which can be found on two maps. Although the main subject remains the rural community of the Cananefates, in fact the military community gets an equal share in the publication. It is of course necessary to examine closely the military and urban communities if one wants to understand a rural group that formed in conjunction with them. De Bruin does so, simultaneously delivering both a catalogue and synthesis of all military sites known along the Lower Rhine and North Sea coast. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 are therefore of very great practical use, providing researchers in the area with useful comparisons and parallels for their sites.

In his conclusions (ch. 7), de Bruin discusses processes of change that occurred in border communities, presenting the Cananefates as a case study. One conclusion is that the Cananefates were immigrants from outside the research area, possibly encouraged or forced to settle by Rome, who soon after arrival developed a uniform material culture through ‘consistency in the arrangement of the homestead, traditions of house building and handmade pottery, and similar patterns in food production and consumption’ (p. 243), necessarily distinguishing them from other groups in the area (e.g. military and (proto)urban). Interestingly, their unity through shared practices and beliefs seems not to have been imposed by an elite group, strongly contrasting the civitas Cananefatium with neighbouring civitates, such as those of the Batavi and Menapii, leading De Bruin to conclude ‘they all followed their own development’ (p. 245).

One might, however, expect similarities, as rural groups on the frontiers of the Empire were formed under Roman initiative and perhaps also following a Roman (-military) example. To this the Cananefatian community is no exception. After their arrival in the first century, the Cananefates’ identity developed as attempts were made to integrate these rural communities further in the Roman Empire. The installation of a municipium and a network of infrastructure during the second century clearly shows Roman governmental involvement in connecting the civitas to the province, which to a lesser degree also counts for the parcelling-up of the rural area surrounding the central town. This landscape development can only have been possible if the local population was in some way united. That the Cananefates had become by this time a strongly connected rural community is shown by the complete disappearance of handmade pottery in favour of imported wheel-thrown vessels at all rural sites, while at the same time traditional byre-houses remained the standard. So, as socio-political and military developments set the stage for the formation of a pan-provincial rural community, communal changes and traditions among local population still defined a unique identity.

Border Communities delivers an interesting insight into the formation of communities during Roman times. The book is a useful and valuable English-language contribution to the complex subject of regional diversity and identity in the Roman empire.