In the Foreword to this book, the author states that its purpose is to “introduce budding archaeologists to the elements of geology in Britain and Ireland, by means of a brief but wide-ranging text, and to encourage them to take the role of this subject in their chosen discipline more seriously” (p. ix). This is an observation that I endorse wholeheartedly, and Allen has the track record to make this comment; in his long and prolific geological career, he has written extensively on sediments, from the Devonian Old Red Sandstone (Allen Reference Allen1964) to the Holocene soft sediment formations of the Severn Estuary (Allen Reference Allen and Rippon2000). During the last 20 years, he also played a significant role in passing on his knowledge to postgraduate students coming through Reading's former MSc programme in geoarchaeology.

The contents of this book are packaged between an attractive colour cover, and at broadly B5 format, it would take up little room in an archaeologist's day bag or within a site cabin, ensuring that its raison d’être, to provide an easily accessible reference resource, might be achieved. Following a brief opening chapter, which considers ‘Why geology matters’, the 11 chapters of the volume provide a mixture of overview and focused content, all written in an easily accessible style. Illustrations within individual chapters are clear and relevant, and the use of colour images to aid discussion of mineralogy and petrology is particularly welcome. With the exception of the Introduction, the text of each chapter is augmented by suggestions for ‘Further reading’. In a book of such breadth this is a good idea, but many of the references cited are quite old and could have been updated.

Chapters 2–5 introduce the core concepts of geology that the archaeologist should be familiar with if they are going to understand cultural records fully: mineralogy; rocks and sediments; maps; and stratigraphy. While the information given in these chapters provides a solid overview, it would, however, have been helpful if the precise relationship between the geological concepts and archaeology could have been more clearly articulated. In addition, Chapters 2–5 focus very much on physical geology and inorganic data, and there is no detailed consideration of the importance of palaeobiological records as proxy indicators of environment and human agency (i.e. environmental archaeology). This is especially unfortunate, for in Chapter 1 the author states that “all landscapes are of archaeological interest, but perhaps the most important, at least in a European context, are those linked to rivers and coasts” (p. 3); these are aquatic zones where environmental remains are most likely to be well preserved. The importance of dating, while mentioned, would also have benefited from more extended discussion to consider individual techniques, as establishing secure chronostratigraphic frameworks is essential to any archaeological investigation.

While Chapters 1–5 are largely contextual, Chapters 6–12 aim to provide a greater focus on Britain and Ireland, and on individual themes where archaeology and geology are closely linked. Chapter 6 considers ‘Geology and landscape’ and how the latter has been shaped not only by human agency, but also by inheritance (i.e. the underlying evolutionary history and structure, relief climate and past geological processes). Moving from the macro- to the meso-scale, Chapters 7 and 8 consider ‘Rivers and water management’ and ‘Sea levels and coasts’, respectively. Within all these chapters, processes through time are considered briefly, but it would have been useful to provide the reader with a more detailed explanation of regional landscape evolution, certainly since the beginning of the Quaternary epoch. A more detailed understanding of multiple glaciations and their limits, erosion and sedimentation (alluviation) in rivers, and sea-level change would help the reader to understand patterns of archaeological remains and their preservation potential within the landscape (including areas now submerged); such concepts are a significant aid to geoprospection and the methodologies that might be employed to aid discovery.

Chapters 9, 10 and 11 bring back discussion to individual materials: ‘Stone for building’, ‘Stone for tools and implements’ and ‘Pottery and brick’, respectively. The discussions for the first and latter chapters are wide-ranging, but the one for tools and implements is restricted to the Neolithic and later periods, and would have benefited from consideration of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic records.

The final chapter (12) considers ‘Metallurgical landscapes’, interweaving a discussion of the distribution of resources and their exploitation through time. Given that the exploitation of many of these ore bodies is intimately associated with streams and rivers, from hydraulic mining (hushing) to ore processing, and that the by-products of these activities are often preserved within valley floors, forming significant environmental markers (Foulds et al. Reference Foulds, Macklin and Brewer2013), this theme may have been better explored in Chapter 7.

From Chapter 6 onwards, the author introduces a number of text boxes at the end of each chapter with summary case studies acting as exemplars of the issues discussed. As with the ‘Further reading’, many of these examples are a little dated; for example, in the consideration of coastal landscapes, a discussion of Doggerland would have been appropriate as it is now a well-established concept (Gaffney et al. Reference Gaffney, Fitch and Smith2009).

To cover the breadth of geology in a book entitled ‘a short introduction’ is always going to be a challenge. This book has both strengths and weaknesses; I would have liked it to have been more wide-ranging, in its discussion of environmentally rich sediments, for example, and more current in terms of examples and references. Despite this, it is written in an accessible manner and will undoubtedly find an audience, although its value to undergraduate or postgraduate students as an up-to-date resource may be more limited. If, however, just a single archaeologist dips into this book and it inspires them to realise the value of understanding the geological record to advance archaeological knowledge, then it has achieved a key aim.