New Books In Archaeology

From its humble beginnings as a crossing point over the river Thames Londinium grew into the largest city in Roman Britain. In Londinium: A Biography (Routledge, 2018), Richard Hingley draws upon the latest archaeological discoveries to provide a look at the growth and development of London over the first centuries of its existence. Though typically thought of as a community established by Roman conquerors, Hingley describes the recently discovered artifacts that point to an Iron Age prehistory of human activity in the area. This may have recommended the location to the Romans, who established a town there which thrived until it was burned to the ground by Boudica’s forces in 60 CE. Its rapid recovery from both this and another destructive conflagration a few decades later demonstrated the importance of the site to the Romans, who by the second century CE made Londinium into the preeminent center for administration and commerce on the island. Hingley shows how recent archaeological evidence has helped us bett