With this volume in the Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology series, Steve Roskams addresses one of the most fundamental aspects of archaeology: the practice of excavation of buried remains from the past. Without excavation, our knowledge of the past would be unimaginably the poorer, and it is perhaps a little surprising that it has taken this long for the Cambridge series to turn its attention to the topic of excavation. The delay may reasonably be due to difficulties in finding a suitable author, for this topic is a complex one and at the same time is subject to relatively rapid and dramatic change through time, as new approaches, methods, and techniques are developed. An author on this topic, therefore, needs to be not only an excellent practicing field excavator but also well versed in the intellectual and technical environments within which contemporary archaeological excavation is situated. Furthermore, the author needs to produce a work that will satisfy, according to the series' own statement, "an international audience of upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, and professional archaeologists and archaeological scientists." Against this backdrop, how has Steve Roskams done?
Let us begin by considering the scope and content of the volume. In a total of 14 chapters, Roskams addresses in turn the following topics: (1) history of the development of techniques; (2) excavation in theory; (3) pre-excavation strategies; (4) excavation in practice: background preparations; (5) excavation in practice: preparations on site; (6) a structured approach to recording; (7) the photographic record; (8) the spatial record; (9) the stratigraphic record; (10) deposit descriptions; (11) non-deposit descriptions; (12) excavating the stratigraphic unit; (13) stratigraphic analysis; and (14) future prospects. These topics can in turn be meaningfully grouped together under the broader headings of (1) background and pre-excavation preparation (Chapters 1-5); (2) excavation and recording (Chapters 6-12); and (3) post-excavation analysis and prospects (Chapters 13-14). Perhaps the most striking aspect of this arrangement is the very small amount of space devoted to the actual practice of excavation, that is, to the removal of archaeological deposits from the ground. Indeed, of a total of 311 pages only one chapter, 21 pages in length, is concerned with the physical removal of deposits. However, to anyone currently involved at any level in archaeological excavation, such a balance of coverage will come as no surprise. To dig today means to think long and hard about why one is digging, where one should dig, and how one should go about digging. Once those topics have been chewed over and digging has started, we all know how much thought, time, and effort must go into the entire process, especially into the meticulous recording at every stage of the discovery, definition, and removal of all deposits. Thus a book on excavation that devotes approximately 7% of its text to the removal of deposits is keenly reflective of the proportions of real time spent on the actual removal of deposits relative to other necessary elements of the excavation process during any competent modern field project.
In my opinion, Roskams has produced a book that will be very well received by almost all elements of its target audience. The aspiring and committed field excavator, and that should include most students and professionals, will learn much that is relevant and practical by reading and consulting this volume. It is unquestionably an excellent guide to good practice in every respect and provides countless pieces of sound advice on every stage of the excavation process. But it is also much more than a first-class handbook or manual. Roskams is passionate about his subject and shares with us his concern for and knowledge of the broad context of archaeological excavation, in terms of both its historical trajectory and its current situation within the context of archaeology at large. Roskams freely admits that he has produced a "very British" book, in terms of his account of the development and contemporary practice of excavation, but it is hard to see how anyone could have produced a less parochial volume that at the same time could be expected to cover the detail and depth provided in this volume. Speaking as a very