These two slim volumes, as their titles suggest, continue the drive to publish the numerous excavations undertaken on Birmingham's only major Roman site: the fort at Metchley. The site has had a chequered history that mirrors the fate of many during the twentieth century. Having survived unrecognised as a Roman fort for one and a half millennia, Victorian railways and canals began a process of bisecting and destroying the earthworks. When the locale was chosen as the campus of the city's new redbrick university in 1900, its fate was sealed. Hacked about by inter-War and post-War activity creating the University Hospital and its associated buildings, the truncated deposits were investigated finally in the 1960s by T. Rowley, but only written up as a backlog project much later, as reported in ‘Roman Birmingham 1’ (A.E. Jones, Transactions Birmingham Warwickshire Archaeological Society 105). Redevelopment of the site, coupled with the change to a planning regime governed by the demands of PPG16, led to NHS-sponsored excavations to mitigate the destruction of the fort. These volumes publish the results of successive stages of these investigations, following on from an earlier stage at the turn of the millennium (‘Roman Birmingham 2’, A.E. Jones, Transactions Birmingham Warwickshire Archaeological Society 108).

There is no doubt that the impact of the past century on the archaeological deposits at Metchley has been considerable, making the task of understanding the site much more complicated through truncation of stratigraphy and total loss of some areas (see, for example, Roman Birmingham 4, fig. 1.6). In addition, the strictures of mitigation have meant that the archaeologist is not able to choose the best areas to excavate, especially since the site is partly scheduled. Given these constraints, these reports manage to tease out a typically dynamic and intense sequence of occupation in the latter half of the first century that saw initial construction, expansion through the addition of annexes on all sides of the fort, then reduction of the fort before abandonment by a.d. 200. The phase of reuse as a livestock enclosure offers an interesting insight into the reuse of such monuments during and after the Roman period, and reminds us that this now intensively occupied part of Birmingham was once a parkland for the formal and informal management of livestock and game. Similarly, the author's speculation on the relationship between civilians and military demonstrates just how far our perceptions of the Roman army have moved on from the days of G. Webster, who had a close association with Metchley in the 1960s.

Roman Birmingham 3 covers the western (extramural) settlement, the livestock complex and the western defences, while Roman Birmingham 4 covers the western fort interior, defences and post-Roman activity. Both reports benefit from the full panoply of artefactual and environmental studies (including some modest contributions by the current reviewer) that collectively add considerably to the value of the report and demonstrate once again the impact of PPG16, and the strong input of the city's archaeologist, M. Hodder, in correctly insisting on this approach. The result adds considerable academic and research value to these volumes. In terms of presentation, the later volume offers the advantage of more extensive use of colour which undoubtedly aids in presenting and understanding the phases. The results in themselves are not startling or surprising in terms of the use and life history of the fort: it is in essence typical of many forts across especially the North-Western provinces of the Empire. The value of these reports lies rather in their collective contribution to our understanding of the Roman conquest and assimilation of Britain into the Empire, and to the regional and local importance of our understanding of the area's economy during this period. The last volume, currently in preparation, will offer a full overview that will, hopefully, not neglect the story of the changing values attributed to the site over a period that has seen its cavalier treatment of a century ago replaced by the careful accretion of detail and academic rigour demonstrated in these reports.