This attractive report presents some of the results of excavations undertaken by Oxford Archaeology between 1993 and 2003. The bulk of the volume is concerned with a large Roman roadside settlement and shrine, prefaced by chapters on the prehistoric activity and an area of Iron Age settlement located some 370 m to the north-east, the post-Roman sequence having already been published elsewhere. The excavations on the roadside settlement were focused over an area of some 3 hectares at the north end of a much more extensive site. Three core chapters set out the chronology and phasing, the material remains and the environmental aspects of the site, followed by a summary discussion which seeks to interpret the whole within a wider context.

The stratigraphic sequence (ch. 4) is presented in an admirably concise and readable way, supported by the key dating evidence and by a series of well-integrated illustrations, each with their own inset location plan to orientate the reader. An initial phase of three separate residential units, each with a circular building, apparently developed alongside a north–south road in the second century. The area was then radically transformed in the later second to third century, the zone to the east of the road being occupied by several ditched enclosures, most housing a variety of rectangular buildings, while that to the west contained a shrine fronted by a monumental façade on the south. In its final phase, from the later third to fourth century, the shrine apparently went out of use, while the area to the east of the road experienced further expansion with new buildings being added alongside existing ones and to hitherto empty enclosures. Most appeared to be domestic in character, though an isolated structure in one of the enclosures at the north end of the site was thought to be a possible shrine.

The two chapters that follow (chs 5–6) are concerned with the associated material culture, ecofacts and environmental evidence. Besides presenting the traditional catalogues, much effort has been directed at drawing out details about the range and composition of the material and about its spatial distribution across different parts of the site, the latter supplemented by a series of valuable distribution maps. Particularly interesting contrasts emerge between the diverse range of material from the settlement and that from the shrine, with the latter, for instance, revealing a high proportion of samian and other unusual vessels, a significant proportion of coins (together with one of the buildings east of the road), and large quantities of personal items presumably deriving from ritual deposits. The domestic nature of the rest of the settlement was also reinforced, with economic activity being limited to some small-scale bone- and iron-working. Such information clearly complements that derived from the stratigraphic sequence and vividly illustrates what can be achieved by careful recording and subsequent analysis at the post-excavation stage.

The final chapter (ch. 7) is an effective and sensible summary of a wide range of issues, including a discussion of settlement morphology, economy and social structure, and the ritual dimension. Far from simply trying to classify the site, the emphasis is placed fairly and squarely on understanding the nuances of its overall character and composition. Much is also made of the potential of the site within the context of the wider regional landscape, by including a discussion of the evidence now available both from the Raunds project and the settlement at Stanwick.

This is an excellently produced and crafted volume, which has benefited enormously from the integration of colour illustrations throughout. It provides an exemplary model not just of what can be achieved when sufficiently large areas are excavated in the course of development-led archaeology, but also of what an integrated approach to all the different strands of evidence can produce. In addition the volume betrays a keen awareness of the need to set such work within the context of existing research agendas, while at the same time laying the seeds for those of the future. For this the authors and their colleagues are to be heartily congratulated.