It was with no small measure of nostalgia that I approached the review of this volume of excavation reports from Lincoln, having been an excavator myself on two of the sites included — Steep Hill and Danes Terrace. However, recollections of my (much) younger self made me, once again, aware of how often publication of urban archaeology takes a regrettably long time. Congratulations should, none the less, be offered to all concerned for slogging on and producing a substantial compendium of data which will advance our knowledge of Lincoln throughout its history, beginning, of course, with the Roman period.

Altogether, the volume reports on 11 sites, excavated between 1972 and 1987, within the walls of the lower city at Lincoln, one immediately to the east of it and another to the west. Unfortunately for Roman studies the depth of archaeological deposits in much of the walled town is considerable — up to 5 m or more in places. As a result, without the considerable expense of shoring and because of the need to step in the sides of the trenches, it was only possible to excavate small areas of the earliest deposits. The rather scary picture (fig. 6.57) of a person without a hard hat, standing at the bottom of an unshored section some 5 m deep (truly a ‘period piece’) reminds us that this approach was a wise one even if it restricted what could be achieved.

For each site there is, in brief, a description of the stratigraphic and structural sequence, reference to important finds and a concluding discussion. The approach adopted here, set out on pp. 5–10, seems to have been to stick fairly closely to the structure and terminology of the archive. Each individual context was arranged into a group (cg) and the groups are themselves grouped into a Land Use Block (LUB), ‘an area of land having a particular function for a specific period of time’. Some ‘cgs’ are grouped together as ‘Structures’. Site descriptions are set out in terms of the ‘cg’, ‘LUB’ and ‘Structure’ numbers and are accompanied by a Land Use Block diagram which aims to present the site sequence at a glance. Imposing a uniform template on what were probably original site records of very variable quality makes for a clear and coherent text, although a succession of rather cumbersome cg and LUB numbers makes it a hard read in places. The plans are in a minimalist style but perfectly adequate. I would, however, have preferred to see them all with north to the top. If one wants to make a comparative study of building and street alignments — as one often does in Roman towns — it is rather irksome to find that priority has been given to making the plans square to the page regardless of north. I would also like to have seen the national grid on at least the main location plans. I have, on occasions, found it very difficult in an urban context to locate old trenches recorded within streetscapes which have changed completely, even over quite short periods of time, following the removal of all the streets and landmarks which existed at the time of the site report.

Matters to do with the format of the text and plans should not, however, obscure the main point to make about this volume, which is that it allows us to gain a clear picture of early Roman settlement and activity in the lower city, the formal foundation of the colonia in the early second century, a period of strong growth in the late second, a flourishing in the late third and early fourth centuries and decline at the end of the Roman period. In addition, new information is presented on the defences at Silver Street and Saltersgate. In its concluding chapter there is an expert drawing together of the threads from each site into a synthetic discussion by Mick Jones and the late Alan Vince to both of whom we owe so much in our understanding of Lincoln's archaeology. I was also impressed by a summary of the Roman pottery by Margaret Darling which allows an overview of the trajectory of settlement to emerge in a manner independent of the stratigraphic sequences. One would like to see this done much more often in site reports. In conclusion, I would like to think that I speak for others who dug in Lincoln in the 1970s and 1980s by saying that while I learnt a lot at the time, I am now delighted to see my distant efforts finally bear such excellent fruit.