Are there only ‘historical’ data, of which textual and material evidence are simply different types? This question, which has deep implications for ancient historians and classical archaeologists, has been frequently invoked in recent years. It has been assessed from the standpoint of disciplinary boundaries (see, e.g., E.W. Sauer [ed.], Archaeology and Ancient History. Breaking down the Boundaries [2004]), as well in a great number of particular studies, by both ancient historians and archaeologists, with the work of I. Morris being notable for its success in incorporating disparate types of evidence.

H.'s volume explicitly questions the relationship between historical and archaeological evidence, from a methodological angle, ‘that is, how the practitioner evaluates archaeological evidence against the textual documents that have traditionally dominated the field of ancient history’ (p. 2), and from the perspective of ancient history and ancient historians (p. 16) rather than archaeology and archaeologists. To do this, H. provides a series of nine case studies, moving chronologically from the vapours of the Delphic Oracle to the bones of St Peter. All chapters include excellent overviews of the current scholarly debates on the topic they cover, as well as extracts from ancient sources in sets of documents which follow each chapter. As such, the book would make a particularly rich resource for teaching. However, because the standpoint is that of the evaluation of archaeology for the purposes of historians, the primary sources are limited to textual extracts, and do not include the archaeological equivalents (plans, strata, etc.) in that section, although the book is well provided with maps and figures. H. also places the case studies in their broader context, judiciously situating the Vergina tombs in relation to the politics of ethnicity and nationalism, and the ‘bones of St Peter’ in relation to institutional politics and theology.

The case studies used by H., including the identification of Socrates' prison cell, the occupants of the Tombs at Vergina, or the House of Augustus, are amongst the most famous in Classical archaeology (and of the ‘Great-Men-and-Big-Digs’ variety), and it would have been interesting to have H.'s reading of a less traditional example that did not deal with funerary remains or monumental architecture in the main. For instance, we might question what happens to historical interpretation alongside more mundane archaeological evidence which can be read over the longer term (for example, numismatic and shipwreck evidence as employed by Hopkins in his classic 1980 JRS article ‘Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire’; the survey evidence used to rewrite Roman Greece in Alcock's 1993 Graeca Capta; or the evidence of house sizes used by Morris to analyse standards of living in the Greek world, in his 2005 contribution to The Ancient Economy: Evidence and Models).

Instead, historical texts form the terms of reference in this volume (as H. is aware, p. 1), and this is not necessarily a problem. H. is conscious of the history of the relationship between the disciplines, as he outlines in the conclusion. However, reading the case studies together it becomes apparent that perhaps the historiography is rather more complex than is let on. For example, Plutarch and Pausanias appear as sources in a large number of chapters (Pausanias, e.g., in the chapter on the Persian destruction of Eretria; Plutarch in chapters on Eleusis, the Oath of Plataia, and the Peace of Kallias, The City of Romulus; and both Plutarch and Pausanias appear in chapters on Socrates in the Athenian Agora and on The Tombs at Vergina) – indeed, much more often than the volume's index would have us believe. Particular ancient sources and their specific invocation of their own material past have themselves had a hand in framing these historical questions, an issue which itself merits investigation.

H. does an excellent job with each of his case studies within the parameters he has defined, deftly analysing both evidence and method. The chapter on Socrates in the Athenian Agora, for example, deals with the identification of the so-called ‘House of Simon’ and the ‘State Prison’ in archaeological remains. The questions posed, about the security of the identifications and legitimacy of the question of looking for a man ‘who was already legendary in his own lifetime’ (p. 78), are well answered. There are, however, broader issues that are not tackled. We might ask why, for instance, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (of all institutions) would need to make associations between the excavated remains and famed historical figures. Are these impulses in any way related to the legitimisation of the excavations, or the construction of institutional authority by authenticating the veracity of ancient texts (with the archaeological agora as the embodiment of this authenticity, this authority?). Similarly, it is worth asking why Classical archaeology has traditionally pursued famous individuals rather than broader social or cultural issues. There is a larger issue at stake, not just in whether we have answered particular historical questions correctly using archaeological evidence, but of whether these questions are valid or worthwhile in the first place, and H. does not generally tackle the latter.

It is not detrimental to H.'s aims that he does not engage with the larger questions of the relationship between textual and archaeological evidence (e.g. Moreland's contribution in the 2006 Annual Review of Anthropology, or Andrén's 1998 Between Artifacts and Texts: Historical Archaeology in Global Perspective), although Classical scholars could benefit from being aware that other disciplines have similar problems reconciling disparate forms of evidence. Similarly, the readership might be interested in what archaeological approaches can add to the interpretation of textual evidence, for example those studies that consider the materiality of texts (e.g. the essays in Whitehouse and Piquette's Writing as Material Practice [2013]) or the archaeological form of textual archives (e.g. the third chapter of Bagnall's 2011 Everyday Writing in the Graeco-Roman East).

None of the issues raised above takes away from the value of H.'s volume, which is successful both at answering the central issue raised by the introduction, namely the evaluation of archaeological evidence for historical purposes, and in expertly evaluating his chosen case studies. The volume will be appreciated by all those who seek to work across the disciplines of ancient history and archaeology, and will be valued in the classroom as well.